Cicadas, Volume II: Dirge of the Furthest Future
by The Azure Crow
Summary: In the end, no ending can be truly perfect. Hinamizawa has become tainted. A demon runs amok in the streets. A feud with Okinomiya is about to begin. A wave of terror sweeps over all those connected to it. And in the distance, an endless war for self preservation rages on...
1. A Chapter: The Night of True Grief

(**Disclaimer: **I rather unfortunately don't own Higurashi, Umineko, or anything related to it. Because if I did Rose Guns would've been out six months ago and Higanbana wouldn't have been ruined with a sequel.)

_**Author's Note**_

Come one, come all. Including all of you Umineko fans. Because there's stuff in here for you too. Welcome to the second installment of the pretty much completely obscure Cicadas Series that wasn't even a series until just now. Because one round of unreliable narration just wasn't enough.

As it stands, this story is a _completely _non linear sequel to _Cicadas: Case of the End Dreamer_.

Now if you're a regular around here, you might be wondering – "_Cicadas: Case of the End Dreamer? _What kind of a name is that for a work of fiction? And why haven't I seen it before?"

Luckily, I can answer the second question for you. _End Dreamer_ was a story posted in the M Rated section for… certain reasons. This story, on the other hand, is nowhere near as messed up and is pretty much postable in this section. Descriptions are less… vivid, if you catch my drift. Also there's nowhere near as much psychological horror. If you could even call it that.

Note that you do _not_ have to read the previous fic to get the full story out of this one. This story isn't a direct continuation of the previous one. It draws on some really small events from the first story, but all of it is being delivered in a way where you won't feel confused at the end because you skipped out on the first one.

As far as things you should expect:

Original Characters (In minimal quantity this time around, mainly consisting of altered versions of the original cast)  
Some very Umineko-styled mystery segments  
Some potentially not so reliable points of narration

I implore you all to read and review. Especially because reviewing not only makes the story improve, even significantly some times, but it lets me know to keep things going full throttle (For those of you who were there for _End Dreamer_ – I could've had that done by March if I had more input. Think about that for a minute). Also free internet cookies may be involved. B-But I'm not promising anything.

Now that all of that is out of the way, the rest of this author's note is mainly for the fantastic four that read and reviewed the original fanfic. If there were even four of you around for that one.

Right off the bat you might notice some things that might sound a bit familiar to you. Later on it'll all get even more apparent. But if you're expecting that "Final Answer Chapter" I said I would have made, this will not be it. You'll probably get a bit more out of this fic than the first time reader regardless.

Go into the story with this in mind: The previous fic was an establishment of an interpretation for the Hinamizawa Syndrome. This fic will cover the other half of the story left to interpretation – the creation of a "more perfect Matsuribayashi." With demons and stuff included for added confusion.

So, without any further delay, enjoy the opening act of this moderately long fanfic.

* * *

_**A Chapter : The Night of True Grief** _

My eyes shoot open. I sit up out of pure reflex as life returns to my body. I gasp for air, and promptly cough heavily as more soot than air fills my lungs. I stare straight ahead, not sure what to make of the scene before me.

I am surrounded by flames. Tall pillars of fire surround me from all sides. The roar of the wind almost knocks me back over, and the sounds of battle from far off reach my ears.

I try to remember what happened. As I stare at the gruesome scene before me things slowly start to fade back into place.

The smell of burning incense. The ash in the air. The sparks that rose from the flames. The collapsed buildings and blazing wood. The blood stained path down the road. The overturned streetcars and the smoldering trees. The scattered bodies that littered the streets. The signs of disaster. My eyes are still somewhat hazy, but I can still see them – the remains of the village. My village – the village of Onigafuchi. There were doubtlessly, hundreds of casualties. But with some fortune I had managed not to become one of them.

I am…I am Riku Furude. That's right. And as it stands I am one of possibly few survivors of Onigafuchi. One of the very few who survived this – this disaster that was brought upon us.

Indeed, it was quite the disaster. But despite even that something was still amiss. I couldn't tell at first, but eventually it occurred to me.

No matter what befell our village, they were always there. No matter the season, you could hear their cries. Whenever the village was threatened, the cicadas always cried out in agony, as if to share in our suffering. But on this night, this night of a terror I'd never even believed could exist, the cicadas did not cry.

It was as if they had all been silenced. As if not even their cries could save us.

I sat there, gazing upon the carnage. And suddenly I was hit with something –

"…Hanyuu…Ouka…!"

I stood in that instant and broke off into a sprint down the road, past the death that surrounded me and further into the village. Finding a path through the flames I worked my way through the village. I had suddenly remembered something rather important.

Hanyuu, my wife. Ouka, my daughter.

They were both in danger. And I had to find them as soon as was feasibly possible.

I continued onward, nearly setting my soot covered robe on fire from almost stumbling towards some of the flames. I found myself tripping over all sorts of rubble as I dashed along the normally clear and well kept streets of the village. There wasn't a doubt in my mind – this wasn't some sort of a natural disaster. Despite the apparent hole in my memory I knew something was very wrong with this situation. And without a moment to spare, I had to confirm that my family had survived.

I made the straightest line possible for the Furude Shrine – my place of residence. I was almost certain that was where the two of them would be, but in the end I couldn't be completely sure. I chose not to dwell on it – the less I thought about it, the faster I would be able to get to where I was going.

I hopped over a streetcar and ran down a small alleyway that cut through the main streets. I could only hope that the side roads wouldn't have been as horrendously damaged. But to my dismay the side roads were just as covered in death as the main streets were. It seemed not a single corner of the village was spared from this calamity – all I wanted to know at this point, though was if _they _were alright. I could worry about the rest of them once I secured the two of them.

I frantically searched for a pathway through the village that wasn't cut off by collapsed buildings. In the end there was no straightforward way – in all practicality, if I were sprinting like this in a normal situation where the village _wasn't_ on fire, I'd already be at the shrine by now. But as it was I wasn't even halfway there.

As I proceeded onward I eventually came to remember what the cause for this disaster was – as I was so promptly assisted in that respect by a pack of creatures that came to block my path.

Their eyes were blood red. They had the black fur of a wolf and the jaws of a crocodile. They were demons – the demons responsible for the destruction of my village.

I stared them down. There were four of them, with one seemingly larger than the rest. These were all small time, however. The real threat was still a long ways away.

The four of them almost went after me at the same time. But unfortunately for them, despite the hole in my memory I was still perfectly capable of swinging a sword.

I draw my katana, the Demon Slayer Kusanagi. A weapon built a lifetime before my own and a weapon that has served its purpose rather well from the moment I learned to use it.

With a single swing the wind around me moved in tandem with the blade, creating a razor sharp wave of wind that made more a more than effective weapon. The ashes and rubble scatter as the wind, with the force of an arrow, hurtles towards my opponents. The larger one apparently saw it coming and jumped out of the way, but the other three were not so fortunate. With that single burst of wind the three were severed into halves almost instantaneously and fell to the ground, bursting into black flames that scattered like wildfire before dissipating entirely. As they were demons, they did not bleed as humans did – they simply burst into flames, as if they were never there to begin with.

I faced the last demon who snarled at me with whatever confidence he had left – and leapt at me, its feral claws at the ready. With an almost effortless side step, I dodge the attack, sending the beast stumbling off to the side. I was prepared to finish the fight then and there, but when I turned to swing Kusanagi the wind rather ironically picked up, sending a cloud of ash and soot straight for my eyes. In my few seconds of blindness the beast turned and struck with as much speed as I had, sending me flying into the rubble nearby. Having fortunately enough avoided anything set on fire I stood before the beast could attempt to finish me off, and in that moment I saw my chance.

The beast came running at me from a distance – apparently not aware that despite how fatal a running attack starting from that distance would have been that the longer it took him to land it the easier it was for me to take aim for the gaping hole in his defense. As he closed in on me I swung Kusanagi diagonally upward, cleaving the monster in two from his lower torso upward. The monster collapsed onto its side and burst into flames as its fellow demons had.

I sighed with relief for a moment before I immediately went back to my mad dash for the shrine. I'd been delayed far longer than I would have liked. I could only hope that I wasn't too late…

But eventually, I found my destination – the shrine, which much to my dismay was just as on fire as the rest of the village.

I made my way up the stone path with whatever energy I could muster and came to the entrance –

But the building had been destroyed. The shrine was in shambles, the roof having caved in and the wooden frame having been set ablaze. The Saiguden had been destroyed in a rather similar manner. It was hell on earth, for lack of a better description.

I hear a sharp howl that pierced through the roaring wind. I turn sharply towards the side, my sword at the ready – and what appears before my eyes more than satisfied the conditions for a worst case scenario.

My home had been destroyed, reduced to nothing but rubble. And against the stone pillar that stood nearby was Ouka, her naginata in hand, slumped to the ground and bleeding profusely.

I rush over to her. Her violet hair is stained with what was likely her own blood. Her kimono is just as equally stained in the same burnt shade of red. Her free arm was apparently broken, twisted in a truly horrifying way. The naginata in her other hand was blooded as well – it seemed she had at least managed to wound her target before it claimed her.

I still had some hope left in my heart. But despite that I knew what I was about to do wasn't going to do any good. Shakily grasping her lowered head, I lift her face to face my own.

Her empty gaze meets my alarmed one. When I release her head it falls lazily to the side. I hastily grasp her by the shoulders and try to shake her, as if hoping by some miracle that she would wake. But it was pointless. She was dead. There wasn't a doubt in my mind. I pull her close, silently cursing the one who did this to her.

I swallow hard. I force back my sadness and rise from her side, gently resting her back against the pillar. I don't have the time to mourn right now. Hanyuu was still nowhere in sight. I had to find her. If I even had the slightest chance of saving her, I had to take it.

I look around frantically for a sign, and by some miracle it seemed that a trail of blood trailed off into the forest. I took off at once, leaving the burning village behind me and praying that I would be able to find her.

If she were dead too…

I took off down the pathway and into the forest. I was almost certain that Hanyuu had been this way.

I heard that eerie roar once again. The sound seemed to get louder the further in I went – I assumed that whatever demon was making the sound was responsible for Ouka's death.

I eventually came to my destination – a clearing in the woods. A clearing that most certainly hadn't been there before. The trees that had once stood here were completely uprooted and cast to the side.

In the center were two demons fighting to the death, the one, carrying the Onigari no Ryuou, was without a doubt Hanyuu. But the other was a demon that I most certainly had never seen before. But considering how the Onigari no Ryuou had been unsheathed for the first time in years, this demon was without a doubt more powerful than I could imagine.

The two of them battle in such a way and at such a speed that I can barely even keep up with their movements. The fight happens several feet in the air – the two were likely using the trees to gain their height, although there was never any visible sigh of it. Being married to a demon, one would think this sort of situation would be a bit less overwhelming for me. But I was only human, after all. I had no choice here but to stand and watch.

I hear steel – or in this case gold – clash with flesh, but not a single drop of blood falls onto the ground below them. But as the fight races onward the two combatants become much easier to see as their pace slows up and exhaustion begins to weigh on them both.

Eventually Hanyuu falls to the ground below. I rush to her side almost instantly. Her face is covered with gashes of all sizes and her white robe is stained red. It seemed she had been taking damage after all. Such was the nature of battles between inhuman creatures.

"Are you alright?" I ask her almost immediately.

"…Ouka?" She asks. It seemed that she wasn't aware.

"She's gone…There wasn't anything I could do."

She shakes her head, a single tear streaking down the side of her face. But then she attempts to sit up, only to find a sharp pain strain her left side. She drops the Onigari no Ryuou, losing the remainder of her strength.

"Don't even try it. I'll take things from here."

"Riku – don't. You can't do anything about him…" She gasps from the pain as she tugs lightly on my sleeve.

"What makes you say that?"

"No one can…He's not something any human can kill."

"But you didn't seem to fare much better."

"…I couldn't do it…I can't explain right now, but you have to understand."

In that moment I hear the roar once again, and the beast that had been fighting Hanyuu until mere moments ago dropped from the trees and stood before me.

The beast's head was nothing more than a skull – the remnants of a deer's head, antlers and all. Its eyes, despite the blood red glow they gave off, were apparently completely hollow. But despite that I couldn't see all the way through them because of the black flames that seemed to have been condensed into a sphere inside the skull. Its left arm was that of a normal human, but I couldn't see the skin due to the black leather that was wrapped around it. From the neck to the toe, the beast was covered in a tattered black robe that was bound to it with bloodied chains that seemed to weigh it down considerably. The right arm, however, was free of the binds as it was more of an animal's arm, with red fur and incredibly sharp looking claws that seemed to be almost twice the size of the other arm.

This was a monster – quite a twisted looking one at that.

"Don't… You can't."

"Sorry, Hanyuu… I'm not going to let this monster get away with what it's done."

Hanyuu offered no further protest. Clearly she knew that there was no swaying me. Not when Ouka's murderer was standing only four feet away and I had a sword in my hands.

In that moment I lunged towards it, the feral beast's arm wildly flailing its way toward me. I raised Kusanagi, preparing for potentially the worst case scenario…

* * *

_The Abandoned Room (June 1__st__, 2036)_

_Kill the beast.  
__You have to kill the beast.  
__You are the only one who can kill the beast.  
__Kill it. Or there is no hope.  
__Kill it. Or you have no future._

My eyes open as I woke from an incredibly deep sleep or some vegetative state. In a matter of seconds, I realize I was no longer where I was before. Was it all really a dream? Did it only just feel so very real or was it some sort of reality? I find myself suddenly asking myself questions.

What am I? Who am I? Where am I?

But I did not know what I was. I simply was. There was no other explanation I could give. I was a creature with a particular anatomy that could think with the same language and thought process that Riku Furude could. But that was all I knew.

I could only devise a response to the second query. I am not Riku Furude. I might have been for a matter of moments, but now I am not… Instead, I'm something else entirely. The existence I was experiencing right this very moment must have been reality.

But more importantly was the second fact that came with that realization – I had no idea where I was. I had no idea how long I had been there. Nor did I know why I was in such a strange place.

My eyes were clouded. I couldn't see much of anything but the strange blue haze that filled the space around me. As my eyes started to focus I could see light glistening from somewhere up above, as if I was staring up at the sun from under the water.

It turned out that was more or less the case. In a few moments, I try to move. I feel the inhibiting effect of the water I was apparently submerged in on my limbs. I am finally able to register that on top of being underwater, I am also floating. My feet don't touch any sort of surface beneath me – it seemed this underwater space had a top, but not a bottom. I am floating in what appears to be some sort of space condensed with water that clearly wasn't normal water considering how I could breathe in it without any issue. There is no indication of where I am. I am simply floating. Floating in what felt like a confined space without any walls or doors.

As my senses return to me, most of the feeling in my arms and legs return as well. But on top of that, I could also feel the cold chill and a draft of air, causing me to wrap my arms around my body to preserve warmth out of reflex. There isn't any real effect – I am simply overwhelmed by the cold. It is so very cold I almost found it hard to believe that I had fallen asleep in such a condition.

Here it was so dark and cold. There was a source of light just up above, but no matter what I tried to do I simply couldn't reach it. The light granted warmth. I needed warmth to survive. I had to reach the light. But I could not. I was trapped in the darkness beneath it – but close enough that I kept thinking that I could somehow get to it. And so I kept trying to reach that glistening light from above, but the more I tried the less progress I made.

But as time passed my vision became more and more clear, to the point where the light from above grew brighter and brighter with each passing second. Every time the light grew, my desire for it grew just as much. It was maddening – it was some sort of cruel trick. Something I wanted that was just barely out of reach that I couldn't get to no matter how hard I tried – for some reason the feeling that governed my thinking felt all too familiar.

Thinking. Emotion. Reaction to stimuli, reception of information. These were signs of humanity. I was therefore human. I was like Riku Furude. That was why the vision felt so real – because we are both human. We both process things on a neurological level nearly identically. It was more than pure instinct. It was intellect, something that humans possessed.

At some point I stop acting on the desire to reach the light and my brain slowly starts to process things. I become more self aware, now no longer drawn to the light by itself. I notice that I've constantly been trying to ascend or descend with no avail. I did not, however, consider moving forward or backward.

I attempt to move forward, floating a certain degree forward. But the scenery around me didn't seem to change much at all. I then look upward, staring at the light. I begin to kick forward, instantly noticing that the position of the light did not change in the slightest.

I had managed to reason it out. I was trapped in a suspended place. I was simply flailing around in whatever direction I chose without actually moving. I was essentially unmovable, rooted into a small space that was unrelenting to my attempts to escape from it. And no matter how hard I tried to, I would never be able to escape from that confined space.

I could feel walls closing in on me. I was in a prison. A prison filled to the brim with water and trapped against my will. And as time passed on the cold and darkness seemed to grow. The light was growing dim, and I feared that it would disappear altogether. Even if I could never reach it, without that light there would no sense of warmth. I could very well freeze to death. I reach out towards it, essentially pleading the light to stay where it was.

Fear. A human emotion. I was human. So it was one of many feelings. I can recall fear above anything else. Fear of danger. Fear of loss. Fear of disaster. Fear of death. I truly remembered how to fear. And so I was human again.

I was trapped. And I wanted to escape. I was human, and as a human I feared being trapped. I was human, so I wanted to be free. So by my very nature I called out for help.

My voice was incredibly hoarse. It likely had to do with the fact that I was underwater, but even so it felt oh so very weak. There was so little strength in it so I decided that no one would ever answer the call. And so, in that condensed space, I brought my legs to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. I floated in circles in that very position, allowing the cold and the darkness to overtake me. At some point the light I had at one point wanted more than anything else vanished entirely.

I no longer cared. There was nothing but futility in my actions. I understood that there wasn't any way to escape. Perhaps I could fall asleep the way I am now and possibly never wake up. I had to face reality. I was trapped in this prison with no means of escape. And there was no one there to help me. Nor would there ever be.

It was cold and dark. It was cold and dark, but perhaps more prominently it was lonely. The more I remembered what it was like outside of this prison, the more I remembered what it was like to be human, and so the more and more I wanted to escape. But it was futile. There was no sense to any of it. The more I desired the things I could never have the more I wanted them and the more I wanted them the more my conflicting thoughts seemed to clash. And the more my conflicting thoughts seemed to clash the more pain I was subjected to.

That was what being a human came down to - deep seated fear, pain, and suffering.

Being human…It hurts too much. I don't want to be human anymore…

_Don't you understand?  
__You can change your name and face.  
__You can forget what living is altogether.  
__But you are human. You are a creature of wants and needs.  
__If you are empty, your humanity demands that you be filled.  
__You cannot change what you are.  
__So kill the beast. You have to kill the beast.  
__It is the only way._

The more my heart ached for a world outside of this prison the more I regretted my curiosity. My curiosity to what I was and to the world around me. My human desires to understand and be free had awakened my human instinct – and I hated it. If it meant I could abandon these terrible feelings I would stop being human in a heartbeat.

And then my eyes grew wide. I could remember. This was not the first time I had awoken like this.

I had erased my identity. I had suppressed everything that made me a person, likely so I could survive. I had erased who I was and why I was. But I could not erase _what_ I was. I had awoken and regained my humanity hundreds of times. And every time I chose to throw it away again. And so I would continue that process another hundred times, and so on and so forth. That was perhaps the only way to survive in this prison – to forget until your very nature made you remember. It was a torturous existence. But it would only last until I made myself forget again. And so on and so forth, until I reached some sort of an end point.

Was being human such a wonderful thing? I doubted it severely. I have erased my humanity countless times, and no matter how often I do so, when it returns I feel nothing but dread and heartache. There isn't any merit to being human.

Riku Furude, for example. I felt his sadness for the death of his daughter. I felt the wave of relief that washed over him when he realized that Hainiryun was alive. I felt his anger towards the beast that claimed his daughter's life and torched his village. Being human brought about more anger and hate than joy or bliss. Therefore, forgetting about those things entirely and living in ignorance must be the better choice.

_But you cannot change what you are.  
__You are human. There is no changing that.  
__You are human. You will live as a human and die as a human.  
__The more you suppress it the more violent it becomes.  
__The more you are subjected to sadness and despair the more deadly it will be when it is unleashed.  
__Your humanity is a dangerous thing.  
__But you were born with it.  
__You will live with it.  
__You will live with the determination to maintain it.  
__You will live to tame it.  
__You will live to kill the beast.  
__Or you will die a beast yourself._

But I could feel it. The more I rejected what I was the more intense these feelings became. I had no choice. I had to accept the agony. I had to – otherwise, it would just become worse and worse until it came to the point where I would doubtlessly lose myself to the darkness, ever present in that bottomless void beneath me, forever.

I didn't want to be human… The memories of that which accumulated my past… I could recall it all. Every face, every name – and with them, the pain of losing them all. That pain in of itself was more fearsome than death could ever be. Living in agony, or dying in peace - one was clearly more rational than the other. And the more I thought about it the more I wanted to throw everything away once again. I didn't want to feel this way.

But if I didn't, and if I did give everything up once again… Would my life as a human have amounted to anything?

I might have been human. I might have been in pain. But if I could brave the pain, I could manage. I could go on, living as a human would. Riku Furude is a sort of inspiration – married to a demon, but determined to treat her as a human. Determined to take his humanity and protect others with it. He might have had more capacity for such a thing than I ever could. But it had been long enough. Perhaps things could be different. Perhaps with my slowly renewing strength I could possibly stand a chance.

But the more I remembered, the more I understood just what was lying in wait outside this prison. No matter how much darkness there was in humanity, there was still goodness. My friends were evidence of that.

Perhaps I owe humanity one last chance. Perhaps I have to put everything on the line for those I care about one last time.

And so I would. I would fight for a brighter future in one last stand.

I opened my eyes and uncurled from that fetal position. I could see clearly now – I was indeed trapped in a prison – I was incased in a cylinder glass prison, filled to the brim with water. The glass container had a clear bottom. I slowly descended, my feet touching the cold glass bottom. The floor beneath me was white and tiled in squares. I peered outward through the transparent glass – I couldn't see very far ahead, but at least I could see my reflection. This was the final confirmation that I was indeed human.

Everything seemed to check out. I was a human woman, over five feet tall. I could recall bits and pieces of what I was and compared them to what I was supposed to be. I was definitely much taller than I recalled.

My human memory was intact. As I had accepted my humanity, I knew what shape my humanity had taken.

I gazed at myself more intensely, pressing my hands against the glass. My eyes shifted to them for a moment – my hands were as white as snow without so much as a blemish on either of them, much like the rest of my skin. My eyes, with extremely light grey irises, were empty and dull, making it appear as if I had been deprived of sleep for a very long time. My hair, oddly enough, was a very light shade of cyan. It was particularly strange – if I recalled correctly, my eyes and hair were both a very prominent shade of violet.

Eventually I noticed I was wearing what seemed to be a very light blue skin tight jumpsuit that covered everything from my neck to my knees. The palms of my hands were gloved with similar fabric, while my fingers were not covered at all.

As I took in all of my personal details, the signs of movement suddenly flashed in the corner of my eye. I made a full turn, coming face to face with a person from beyond the glass.

Her hair was short and violet. Horns stuck out of her head. She wore what seemed to be a white robe of some sort –

I recognized her almost immediately.

"..H…Han…Hanyuu…?" My weak voice projected.

It was her. It was Hanyuu. My only remaining friend who had guided me through the darkness of human folly with hopes that we could somehow escape from its clutches. No matter what happened, she was always there at my side. And here she was, standing before me, breaking isolation's hold on me bit by bit.

As long as she was here – it would all be fine. As long as she stayed at my side – I would brave anything that was thrown at me. I could do anything as long as she was there.

With a pained expression, she placed her hand against the glass of the prison. I placed my hand against hers. It seemed that this was the closest we could manage for physical contact.

"Hanyuu…" I whispered her name once again. We remained that way for a long while, our eyes locked. On my end – questioning. _Why am I here? Why are you there? What went wrong?_ And on her end – dejection. _I'm sorry. I'm so sorry._

As long as things stayed this way… I could be at peace. As long as Hanyuu was still there, I could manage. I could surmount any obstacle. Even if there was no way to escape from this prison, as long as she was there, by my side…

But eventually Hanyuu retracted her hand and took a step backward.

Where was she going?

She took another step.

She wasn't going to _leave_, was she?

No, she couldn't. She _wouldn't_.

But eventually she disappeared from view altogether, into the darkness beyond the glass that I couldn't see through. My hand remained plastered to the glass. I was too stunned to move it.

She was gone.

But that wasn't right.

Why did you leave?

Didn't I say I'd give them another chance?

Didn't I say I'd risk everything again?

Then why? Why did you leave?

Don't leave me here. Not like this…

Don't leave me…Alone…Not again…

My gaze grew hazy once more. This time I was perfectly aware of why my gaze was clouded.

Tears welled up in my eyes. My vision was clouded by tears before, and so they are now.

Intense Sadness. I was human. So therefore I could experience it. Therefore I _would _experience it. I didn't want to. But I was human. So I had to.

I shut my eyes and curled back into that fetal position. I was prepared. I was willing. I was going to accept what I was. But the moment I had believed that it would all amount to something, that chance slipped away.

Being human still hurt. No matter how hard I was going to try to combat the pain, it would simply strike back tenfold. But I had to keep going. I couldn't stop just yet. I had to fight back only one last time. For the goodness in my friends' hearts, I had to press on.

I knew I couldn't abandon my humanity. No matter what pain it brought me, I had already made my decision. I would press on, but for the moment I was still trapped and alone. There was no sense in dwelling on my situation any longer. And so I chose to sleep on it. That was the only way I could escape from all of it, even for just a short time. I could only hope that when I awaken there will be some way to escape from this place.

But deep down I had to acknowledge that such a miracle probably wouldn't occur.

My consciousness began to fade, my fatigue overtaking me.

_There is only one way.  
__There is only one way to forget the pain.  
__You must kill the beast.  
__Kill the beast, save yourself.  
__Kill the beast, save your friends.  
__Kill the beast, redeem the world.  
__Kill the beast.  
__You have to kill the beast.  
__Before the beast kills you._


	2. Nebulous Dream Chapter, Episode 1

_**Nebulous Dream Chapter, Episode 1**_

_24 Days Remain (June 6__th__, 1983)  
__Rika Furude_

I woke with a gasp, a cold drop of sweat trailing down my spine. I glance around with some urgency, making sure with complete certainty that I was still in my room. Satoko was asleep on the futon in the corner. The bottle of Bernkastel wine I had finished some time ago was still on the floor, broken into countless pieces. I sighed with relief. At least I had woken up in the same place.

I wasn't sure how I had fallen asleep on the window seat, but that wasn't what was on my mind at the moment.

That dream – the dream of Onigafuchi, set aflame and cast into the fires of destruction. It was all so vivid, and far too real. It was if I was Riku Furude for that short period of time.

"Hanyuu…" I whisper.

The poor excuse for a deity in question appears at my side, a rather pained taking hold of her face. She was clearly going through a matter of distress herself.

"So you know." I come to the conclusion that she was already well aware of the dream that I had just made it through.

Hanyuu is silent. She makes no needlessly cute noises and stares at the floor with some frustration apparent in her expression. Her mood is rather out of character, but then again she fit her role much more positively when she took on her pensive silence.

"Rika…I'm sure you have questions…But I'm afraid – "

"What was that dream about? Actually, let's just stop calling it that. It was obviously some sort of a vision. Did you have anything to do with it?" I waste no time grilling her for answers. Answers I knew she had.

She shakes her head.

"Then what was it? Why haven't I ever had it before?"

"I don't know…"

"You don't know? But then you at least have to know…Didn't you tell me, that back when you were still alive and lived in Onigafuchi that –"

"I know what I told you, Rika. That my daughter, Ouka, was the one who killed me so the village would no longer have to tear itself apart over scandal and baseless fear. I know what I told you…But you need to understand –"

"Then those demons – who were they? Where did they come from? And that thing – the deer skeleton monster – what was that? And why did it attack you?"

"I...I can't tell you."

"Why not? It has to be important. I've never had it before – and I'd like to have some idea of why."

"I can't tell you…Just like I can't tell you –"

"Just like you can't tell me why it's suddenly 1983 again? Why everything seems to have looped even though no one died?"

Hanyuu nods her head. I feel like hitting her.

"They have to be related. And you know why…Dammit, you're a pain sometimes, you know?" I sigh with frustration, leaning back against the wall and staring out the window at the moon that loomed over the village.

It was supposed to have been the January of 1984. But just as the clock hit midnight, I was sent backward – back into the Endless June. We had managed to triumph over fate, after Hanyuu had nearly completely exhausted her powers and I had nearly given up hope. But because of my wonderful friends we had managed to make it to the end – an end where not a single person had died. We all made it past that June. Hinamizawa had been saved. There was no longer a threat from Takano or the Yamainu, and there was little chance that the Tokyo Company would get itself involved past that point.

But when New Year's Eve came around, things suddenly started to change. In a matter of hours the New Year was supposed to have begun, but instead I was exposed to a flash of light and, just as suddenly as it all had happened, I was left off here, in Hinamizawa, in the state things were in during that terrible chapter of our lives. Hanyuu had not taken me back in time or anything of the sort – time just seemed to loop on its own.

It was as if I was being mocked. It was as if fate let me get away just once just so it could pull me right back in. There was no explanation for it, but it seemed that there was something more to this cycle than I could ever truly understand. This vision of a burning Onigafuchi likely had something to do with it. I had never had such a vision in all hundred and seventy of my years and without a doubt it was related to the sudden loop. But she couldn't tell me. She couldn't tell me a thing for a very particular reason that she naturally couldn't tell me about either.

It seemed that I had made ti back to square one. I had no idea how much longer I could take this, but at least for as long as I had my sanity I would attempt to break the loop without failure. That was how things always were before. I didn't see the reason why things had to change all of a sudden.

"Rika…" Hanyuu suddenly speaks. "Get some rest. We can figure out things as we go along. You made it far enough before. I doubt it'll take as long this time around."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Things are definitely different from the way they were before. Even I'm not entirely sure how just yet, but I know you'll be able to figure everything out someday. But remember you can't do things on your own."

Hanyuu brought up a very good point. The only reason why I had even gone on for as long as I did was because of my friends. Keiichi, Mion, Satoko, and all the others – they pushed me along and ultimately gave her – the Rika from the world before mine – the strength and the means to overcome fate. That was how I escaped the loop. But there was already enough out of place – enough that I didn't believe succeeding would be possible.

"Yeah, but…We needed you last time, didn't we?"

In this world, Hanyuu took on her spirit form. She was dressed in her usual garb as opposed to the school uniform she more or less wore all day every day in the previous world. There were futons spread for only two people in this room. Hanyuu clearly didn't exist in this world the way she did in the last one. And without her – I doubted that the succeed we had would be possible this time around.

"Rika…There's…I'm sorry…"

"You can't tell me? Is there a point when you _will_ start telling me things?"

"I promise you…I'll tell you everything, once you've gotten to the point where you can understand it all."

"I doubt that'll happen anytime soon."

"Don't think like that…It might turn out to be true if you don't try."

I sigh.

"Rika – I believe in you. I know you'll be able to overcome this…Just get some rest. We can't do anything about it right now, can we?"

"I suppose you're right…Okay. Goodnight, Hanyuu."

"Goodnight, Rika." She smiles softly before she disappears.

I proceed towards the bed, successfully slipping under the covers without waking Satoko. I can only hope that when I wake tomorrow, things will have improved.

But I already had a feeling. Things aren't going to get better any time soon. What I was about to walk into – I doubt I'd ever be ready for it.

I could only rely on them – my friends – and pray.

* * *

_23 Days Remain (June 7__th__, 1983)  
__Mion Sonozaki_

In all honesty, I really didn't expect my morning to go this way. Not only was I forced to skip breakfast, but now I'm going to be late for school. I guess I could be exempt from Chie-sensei's punishment given the circumstances, and considering how this old bastard decided to interrogate me first thing in the morning I'd probably just ignore Kei-chan's teasing. It would seem that he hasn't gotten any better over the years. But then again he's had some bad blood with me for as long as I can remember.

Oishi-san sits across from me, his face locked into the unusual scowl that only ever seemed to come up whenever he went on about the Onigafuchi Guardians deal that he really needs to learn to let go. But this wasn't just about that – something a whole lot more recent had come up. Hence why I was being interrogated in the first place.

We continue our face off, with neither side even coming close to relenting. This was how our usual discussion went. Only it usually didn't take place at seven in the morning and it rarely lasted this long.

"I'll ask again. You are _certain_ no one from the Guardians sect was involved?"

"I can't be any clearer than I'm being. We're the only two who still lose sleep over that name. No one was involved. I swear it."

"On your Sonozaki name?"

"…Yes, on my Sonozaki name. Is that good enough for you?"

Oishi Kuraudo. Asshole of the universe. He never seems to understand that when it comes to me, no means no. And there's no bargaining.

He shakes his head. It seemed that he wasn't satisfied with my response. He usually never was.

"Look, I know you're not even the head of the family yet, but you can't hide it from me. You're in on the dealings in this village. I know you've got some idea who killed that child. Just tell me what you know, and I'll leave the family out of this, alright?"

He was referring to a very recent murder of a cram school student from Okinomiya. Apparently the poor girl had been found dead in an alleyway early in the morning. The investigation was apparently still underway and there wasn't any sort of lead or suspect – just a dead body, damaged almost beyond recognition. I wasn't sure who would be cruel enough to kill someone in such a violent way, especially considering how it was just a school girl who they most definitely had nothing against. Naturally, Oishi decided to snoop around here. Because where else would you find a runaway murderer other than in Hinamizawa?

More importantly was that he was so certain I knew something about it. In truth, I didn't. I didn't know a single thing about this death until Oishi's much more conversation-friendly partner explained the details to me. There was absolutely no connection between the murder and this village. But Oishi seemed convinced. I had to know why, no matter how small my involvement might have been.

"Why are you so sure of that? What makes you think we're involved in any way?"

"Don't play dumb with me. You know as well as I do the last incident we had to deal with in Okinomiya had the Sonozaki family written all over it."

My gaze drops. Oh, so that was why…

About a year ago, there was a very…selective serial murder case that had Okinomiya in an uproar for almost six months. Multiple people, all of which were regulars at a particular Sonozaki owned establishment that was rather notorious for scum-of-the-earth sort of people to hang around, were found dead in rather gruesome ways. In the end, the established connection between that joint and the Sonozaki family led to all sorts of issues with the people living in Okinomiya. In the end we never did determine who exactly was behind the series of murders, but as far as the residents of Okinomiya were concerned we had more than enough evidence pointed at us. Eventually things died down, but it would only be a matter of time before things would get worse.

This incident seemed fairly isolated, though. But I could almost understand Oishi's concern. Almost. But more importantly, there were details of the incident I didn't know – where it happened, how the body was found – that I needed to get out of Oishi now, while I still could. It was very possible he had something that incriminated someone from the village.

"But even then, there's nothing that points to us in any way this time around. Couldn't it just be a matter of someone acting out on their own?" I try to regain my composure to the best of my ability. I couldn't let Oishi notice that I'd been running things through my head. I needed to get information out of _him _now.

"I'd thought about that. But really, I just wanted to see if I could pull anything out of you before we could verify it." He shrugs his shoulders in his usual casual manner.

"…Wait a minute. So you _don't _have anything on us at all? You came here with a bluff? So you could try to get info out of me?"

"Wasn't a bad idea. I just didn't have any luck."

"You're a bastard, you know that?"

"I know…You've only told me half a dozen times today alone…" He sighs before he stands up and heads towards the door. He takes one last look at me, his expression still very stern.

"Don't forget…If something _does_ come up…Things can get nasty. The whole family can get dragged in. Just remember that, just in case you _do _eventually find something and choose to hide it from me, alright?"

I slowly nod my head. And with that, Oishi opened the door and left the room.

I lie back against the sofa. I had Oishi take the hard wood chair, so luckily the sofa didn't reek from any of his stench. I sighed, closing my eyes for a moment.

"Dammit…Why a murder? Why so damn close to the festival?"

In the end there was only one thing I was really worried about. That being the timing of this killing. It was probably just a coincidence, but there was still a chance it might not have been. With the Watanagashi Festival only a week away, the villagers are going to be particularly superstitious. Especially come tomorrow, when the incident hits the media. But in the end, as long as no one went missing and no one from the village turned up dead, there shouldn't be much issue.

But what Oishi said about Okinomiya still scares me.

It was certainly true. Probably all of Okinomiya outside of the staff at Angel Mort had it out for us these days. If this turned into another large scale incident, and if we're involved in any way, there might not be any last minute terms of forgiveness this time around. In the end we don't even _have _to be directly involved. All they need to see is a pattern. I'm sure people will be pointing fingers at the Sonozaki family off of this first killing alone.

…First killing. I mean the _only_ killing. I need to stop thinking like that…

But that aside, I had to start keeping tabs on anyone who comes in from Okinomiya. If anything happens in this really, _really _bad window of time not only will Okinomiya be at our throats, but the rest of the village might. I knew I had Rika's support, but that could only go so far. Doing things without that Oni-baba's permission might not have been the best idea, but I had to keep this to myself for the time being.

Oishi only interrogated me for a very particular reason – that being my involvement with that Onigafuchi Guardians business back when the dam was still being built. If Oishi suspected me and those involved over the rest of the family, it would be better if I didn't get them involved. Perhaps if things did get bad, and I kept things tied to me, I could take the heat for the rest of the family…

I shook my head vigorously. I had to stop thinking like that.

Nothing else had gone on yet. I had to be a bit more cautious, but at least it could have been an isolated incident. But for some reason, no matter how hard I tried to just accept that, I couldn't shake the feeling. This was just so close to Watanagashi. Sure, it could've still been a random incident, but things lined up a bit too perfectly. I couldn't help but believe that whoever was behind the killing wanted to damage the Sonozaki name – perhaps even destroy it. I just didn't know why.

I suddenly remember that I'm late for school. I was already dressed and such, so all I had to do was walk out the front door and get off the grounds before anyone saw me. I didn't want to answer any questions about Oishi. On my way down the road, I made sure I looked as normal as possible. I didn't need anyone asking me why I looked out of place or whatever.

School started without much issue. I explained the situation briefly to Chie-sensei and everything sort of just went by. I mostly ignored Rena's jabber and whatever it was Kei-chan was trying to do during lunch. I sort of just sat around and reflected on things without any real care for what was happening around me.

In reality, I didn't know what I thought was going to happen. Deep down I was a bit concerned about our annual cursed festival, but I didn't know why I was so tempted to draw a connection between a rouge killing and what had a decent chance of happening here in the village. I was already keeping a closer eye on Kei-chan than I thought was fair and the rest of the family was pretty much on as high an alert as possible, so I doubted anything would go wrong on our front.

But then there was this incident, and the Okinomiya connection. The needless tension would definitely pose a serious problem, but we could probably keep a closed enough lid on the situation. I was just concerned that, especially with the killer on the loose, the killing would work its way into the village. And I already knew there weren't any clear suspects in the village itself. So unless some random stranger happened to show up, there was literally no way for me to plan in advance. But then suppose a killing _does _happen. Then, if I would have any chance of figuring out who was behind it, I'd need to enlist the rest of the family. But then they would all get involved, and so there would be literally no chance of the family surviving the outrage. I had to do things alone. But how would that be possible?

At the end of the day I more or less just went home. Kei-chan gave me a pretty peculiar look when I told the group, but looking back on the entire day I really didn't have any interest in screwing around with the club or asking him what was up. I'd just ruin the fun for the rest of them.

Upon arriving at the estate, I found Shion standing in the doorway to my room. Not only was she home earlier than usual, but she wanted something from me.

"Talk." She commanded.

"About what?"

"You called off the club. You were late to school. You wouldn't talk to anyone. Explain."

"How the hell does this stuff get to you so quickly?" I sighed with irritation.

"Rena-chan called ten minutes ago. She was concerned."

"Ah, Rena…I should've known." Rena was known for this sort of thing. If I recall correctly, Kei-chan didn't eat lunch one day, so she stalked him to his house to make sure he had dinner. Of course Rena knew not to sneak around the manor – from experience, mind you – so she went for the next best thing.

There was little doubt in my mind that Shion was going to let me get away without spilling everything right here and now. But that didn't stop me from trying.

"So what is it? What's been going on?"

"Look, I'm not in the mood to talk about it."

"Like hell." She was being a bit more aggressive than usual today. I honestly had no idea why, but Shion's mood was the least of my problems at the moment. In most instances I'd probably tell Shion about more or less anything. But this was something I had to keep to myself. Above pretty much everyone else, I didn't want to get her involved. She had enough on her plate as it was.

"Just get out of my way."

"Not until you tell me."

"I…I'm not going to. Get it?"

We stared each other down, but it was pretty much clear that she was glaring at me with much more intensity. Shion was very aggressive when she wanted to be. Way more than I could ever be, really. But I suppose that it didn't amount to much here. I mean really – I'm her sister. She can't do anything _too_ terrible to me.

"Why not?" She's not very vocal today. She seems to be cutting her sentences down to a few words at most. There must have been something wrong with her throat. Maybe she was sick? She hadn't been showing any signs of it yesterday. I swear, if any of those pigs at Angel Mort gave her anything…

…Wait, I'm supposed to be mad at her right now, right? Why am I worrying about her?

"…What's up with you? Why do you sound so weird?" I didn't mean to say that. I'm not worried about you at all. I hate you so much right now. Seriously.

"None of your business. Now tell me."

"I'm the one asking you now. If you won't tell me about your issue, I'm not telling you about mine."

She sighs and somewhat reluctantly walks out of the doorway. It seemed she was already planning on giving up, likely from the moment I noticed she wasn't speaking properly. She turns to leave.

"You can shut me out. But I'll find out soon." With that she walked off down the hallway.

I knew she was right. She always did find out in the end. I just had to hope she didn't when it was still too soon. But knowing her, she'd know by tomorrow morning, even though I was the only one who saw Oishi. I even greeted him at the gate. But she'd still find out somehow. I sighed once more, heading into my room and straight onto my bed. There was no point in deliberating over any of it. Not until tomorrow.

There was no chance at this point that when I woke up tomorrow things would suddenly just go back to normal. I'd spent all of today dreading tomorrow, and tomorrow would be here in a matter of hours. There wasn't much debate – I'd need to get moving. I'd have to go to school and act as normally as I possibly could. And then – well, from there I just had to sit back and watch. Very carefully.

We couldn't afford another conflict with Okinomiya. We couldn't afford to have the village break out in outrage. We – or rather, I – had to find some way to deal with both issues at the same time.

I could take the fall for the rest of the family. I could... But do I really want to? Do I really want to give up everything so quickly? And more importantly, would it even matter in the end? I hoped it would never have to come to that. But I had to face reality here.

In the end I didn't get very much sleep. I spent most of the night thinking. I wasn't sure, no matter how many times I ran the situation in my head, how I could salvage the order in the village if more people went missing. I just had to hope that wouldn't be the case. But deep down I knew. Deep down I knew that when tomorrow came, there wouldn't be much hope.

But I still had to try. I owed everyone around me at least that much. So I couldn't stop. I couldn't give in. I just had to keep fighting. For Kei-chan and the others, for my sister, for my family – and I was the only one now who could do it.

If it ever came to it - I would take the fall. I would do it, only because I would be the only one that could.

I closed my eyes and listened to the sound of the cicadas as I slowly drifted off to sleep.

* * *

_22 Days Remain (June 8__th__, 1983)  
__Keiichi Maebara_

I brought the axe down, cleaving my target with a sickening crunch. It seemed that once again I'd swung the axe on an angle, making a very poor cut. I ripped the axe out and tried again, this time around getting a good string of chops going. At some point it was very rhythmic. The swinging of the axe, the chopping sound – it got to the point where time started to pass by and I barely even noticed it. It was a bit enticing, if only because it gave me something to dwell on other than those damned cicadas.

I hate the summer. I really do. Every time the summer comes around I more or less just stop working. I'd just spend the whole summer relaxing, trying to fight the heat as best as I could. But this summer? Oh no. That wouldn't happen. Not around here, at any rate.

Eventually I'd diced up my target fairly well, so I figured I'd done my job well enough. I dropped the axe and stretched my back. I'd been hunched over for way too long. I wondered how people could do this all day every day to make a living.

At one point I thought coming into this village would be the worst thing that could happen to me. All in all, I wasn't that far off. Especially with that woman calling me at three in the morning to do a job for her. I didn't really expect her to ask me for help at all, given how…self sufficient, I guess, she was. But lo and behold, I had to go looking for an axe and head out into the woods, or face the dire consequences. I swear, the next time I win a club game, I'm going to get back at her so badly…

I sigh, sitting next to the pile of firewood on the ground. I was sweating profusely, I was dead tired, it was likely already close enough to seven in the morning so I didn't have any real time to catch up on sleep – it was all that demon's fault. She'd demanded that I chop up firewood for her with virtually no explanation whatsoever and on top of that she'd gone and forgotten to tell me where she wanted it dropped off. For the time being I would have to just hide it in my house. Somewhere.

But…Despite her unfortunately typical behavior, only for a moment did I think she was back to normal. I hadn't forgotten how strangely she had acted yesterday – something was clearly still up. But I had no idea why she had wanted firewood. In fact, the only reason why I even accepted her nonsensical request in the first place was because I knew something was up and I'd have a better chance of finding out what if I did as she asked.

I sighed once again, grabbing as much firewood as I could and began hiking off to my house. Luckily I'd been smart enough to pick an area of damaged trees that was close to the house – otherwise, by the time I'd be finished I'd have missed school altogether.

The whole process took about twenty minutes regardless. But that aside, I tucked away the firewood, mostly in my room, and waited for Mion to call me back. That had apparently been another requirement of hers.

But I waited and waited, and ultimately she never contacted me again. I sighed. It looked like I'd be stuck with the firewood until she told me what to do with it. I decided I'd just ask her at school. Of course that plan would fall apart if she didn't show up at school.

I ended up skipping breakfast and decided to head straight to school without waiting for Rena. The sooner I could question Mion, the better. But along the way I almost got hit by a very particular person's bike.

As I rounded a corner, I caught a glimpse of Rika speeding down the road on her bike. In another moment, she was about five feet away from me and without any sign of slowing down. I doubled back immediately, and as I did so she suddenly snapped back to reality and tried to slow down. But she was heading straight for a trash can. Noticing her immediate peril, I somehow managed to grab a hold of her, hoisting her into the air just in time for the bike to speed off into the trash can, thankfully without its rider in tow.

She gasped suddenly, and by some stroke of bad luck I lost my footing. I fell backward, while Rika ended up landing on the pavement face first.

"Ah, shit…Sorry, Rika." I apologize out of habit.

"No…Don't worry." She hurriedly stood up and went running after her bike, which apparently hadn't sustained any serious damage. She rushed back over to me, checking to see if I'd been injured.

"Don't worry…Luckily you didn't land on top of me. That could've been trouble…" I give her a reassuring smile. She sighs with relief before helping me to my feet.

"I'm so sorry. I wasn't…I wasn't paying attention."

"I'd noticed."

"Uh…You're sure you're fine?"

"Yep. You missed me. Narrowly, but you missed me."

"That's good." She sighs again. "I'm really sorry. I'll see you later, okay?"

Before I could even reply, Rika took off on her bike once again, rounding the next corner and out of sight.

"Damn…What the hell is going on around here?" First Mion was acting strangely, and now Rika was in a world of her own. Something was definitely up. But I chose for the moment not to dwell on any of it and I headed down the street to the school.

The remainder of the walk to school was fairly uneventful – aside from the group of knocked over trash cans on one of the street corners. I sighed. Rika wasn't having much luck this morning. I began to wonder what was up with her. Even for a girl her age, Rika usually shows much more focus than that. She isn't one to get lost in thought like that unless something was really eating her.

Then there was Mion, who was just as uncharacteristically in a very solemn mood. Yesterday she didn't speak a word to anyone, except of course to tell us that the club was cancelled for the afternoon. As I mulled it over, it occurred to me that the Watanagashi festival was closing in.

Mion and Rika were two people that were fairly involved in the entire process. Rika was going to be performing the yearly ritual at the shrine, while Mion was more likely than not knee deep in preparation work for the festival itself. She'd most likely be hard at work, day and night, for the next several days. Maybe they were both just really stressed out or something along those lines.

But that didn't change the fact that Mion left me with a truckload of firewood that she apparently wanted. I still had to chew her out for that one. But I decided to leave it at that for the time being. I had no idea about any other reasons they might have for their odd behavior, so I more or less just went with what made the most sense.

Eventually I made it to school, about an hour or so earlier than usual. The first thing I did was go straight to Mion. Satoko was already doting all over Rika, so I didn't need to worry about her at the moment.

"Alright, so what's wrong with you?"

She turns and looks at me somewhat strangely. She lacks the exuberance she normally has, much like yesterday and remarkably similar to Rika from earlier.

"I should be asking you that, Kei-chan. You're early. Something's got to be going on." She joked around without much amusement in her expression. It didn't feel right. Not at all.

"Of course I'm up early. You're the one who made me gather firewood. Or do you not remember?"

"Firewood?"

"What, don't act like you don't know. You called me at three in the morning and had me go gather firewood. I have no idea what to do with it since you never told me."

"When did this happen?" She looked at me with a hint of curiosity.

"How can you not know?"

"All I'm saying is that I didn't have you go gather firewood. I was…A bit preoccupied at three in the morning. But I don't think I'd be in bad enough a mood to bug you."

"Wait, but then if you didn't then who –"

It hit me in an instant.

Damn that Shion. Posing as Mion because she knew I'd do whatever she said if she did. If Mion really didn't have any clue as to what I spent the good part of my night doing, then it had to have been her twin…Her equally as evil twin.

My precious hours of sleep. Gone. Why is life so cruel?

I start shouting about it on the spot, flailing my arms in various directions. Mion is taken aback as I make a massive scene right in front of her. Most of the classroom looks my way, giving me a look as if I were some sort of alien. I started to head for the classroom door, not entirely sure where I was headed. It's not like I could've gone to Okinomiya right this minute to chew her out. Not that I would've had any level of success anyway. But in the process I tripped on some kid's backpack and crashed against the floor… But as I have no manner of luck whatsoever, I managed to bump into Rika, who was standing a bit too close for her own good, holding an opened bottle of soda. I'm going to go ahead and guess that you know where this is going. Rika drops the bottle, which promptly spills out over me.

The class erupts in laughter while I more or less lie motionless on the floor. Rika is pretty much stunned. I would be too, if I almost ruined someone's day on more than one occasion. With about fifteen minutes in between each one.

And through it all, Mion couldn't help but crack a smile and start laughing herself. My torment was always something she looked forward to. Hence why I almost never win any club games. But hey, it's good she apparently got some steam off, but still…

Sure. Laugh away. Just wait until I get my hands on your sister…

But somewhat strangely Mion makes her way over to me. She pulls me off the floor and leads me out into the hallway.

"Same old Kei-chan…Seems like even if I'm not involved you still find ways to humiliate yourself." She jokes with a rather smug grin plastered to her face. It was a hell of a lot more Mion-like than the solemn expression she held earlier. She opens one of the lockers in the hallway and pulls out a fresh white shirt to replace my badly stained one.

"It's your sister's fault…Waking me up at three in the morning…All that damn firewood…I'll have to spray my room for bugs later." I mumbled.

But while I was still going off about how I'd try but ultimately fail to get back at Shion – Mion suddenly embraces me. Rather tightly at that.

"…Mion?"

"Promise me something. Promise me that you'll never change. No matter what."

It was a rather strange command. I had no idea what she meant by it.

"Uh…Sure."

"You promise? Seriously?"

"Yeah. I promise." I still wasn't entirely sure what I was swearing to do, but I figured that going along with her would be the best way to handle things.

She laughs softly, tightening her grip on me.

"Kei-chan…Thanks." She practically whispers right into my ear. "…You don't know how much I needed to hear that."

But just as suddenly as she had latched onto me she lets go. I manage to look behind the two of us and I notice Rena standing near the doorway to the classroom, silently watching the entire exchange.

"But…" She begins to speak in a much sterner voice. "Just stop doing stupid things for the next few days, alright?"

"Uh…Sure. Yeah, I get it. Just don't overwork yourself, alright?"

She gives me a look of surprise.

"You know. With the festival and all."

She almost sighs. "Oh. Right. The festival…I'd nearly – oh, wait, forget it. Just go get cleaned up. I'll see you later." With that, she turned and went back into the class room, leaving me rather confused in the hallway. On the way, she and Rena shared a lingering glance. After Mion disappeared into the classroom, Rena gave me a quick smile before vanishing herself.

"…Huh."

I decide that it was best not to dwell on any of it. I went down the hall and towards the bathroom to change my shirt.

As I did so, something important suddenly occurred to me. At this point I knew Shion was the one responsible for that call. But there was still the reason – why did she want me to gather firewood? Especially if she didn't have a clear purpose for it? It wasn't like making me do that achieved much of anything. But knowing her, there was some ulterior motive. And I just couldn't think of one.

Unless…

…No. That wasn't possible.

I dismissed the thought from my mind. There was no way she'd have any knowledge about…That. But still, I was becoming needlessly concerned with Shion's reasons. Maybe she was just screwing with me. Maybe she noticed that Mion was acting strange and set me up for the scene in class, even though it was way too variable for her to have planned any of it. Maybe she thought putting me in a bad mood would improve her sister's. That might have been it.

I can't jump to conclusions. Especially when…that…is involved.

Eventually I managed to wander back into class. Aside from the occasional snicker, the school day went on without much issue. That is, until Rena started jabbering at some point during lunch about how I had left for school early. No matter what it was, it seemed that if my schedule changed in the slightest she would freak out about it. Rika was still fairly apologetic about what had gone on in the morning, while Satoko seemed to relish in my suffering and tried her best to walk me into another disaster whenever I so much as got out of my seat. Mion was a bit more standard throughout the rest of the day, but eventually her mood deteriorated once Chie-sensei brought in the newspaper for us to read.

Needless to say, the front page article was what set her off.

_Okinomiya Student Found Dead, Culprit at Large_

_A seventeen year old girl attending a school in Okinomiya was found dead in an alleyway early in the morning yesterday. Details of the murder were not released until this morning due to requests made by both the family of the victim and the investigators. The child reportedly was killed the night before by a still at large assailant. The murder weapon has still not been determined, but at this point investigators have not ruled out a wild animal related attack due to the nature of the lacerations found on the body. The body has apparently been moved out of the area for further investigation at a regional precinct primarily due to this, as investigators report that the supposed claw and jaw markings did not hold any resemblance to any known animal commonly found in the area. _

_(Page 8, Murder.)_

Mion groaned. "Geez…I knew they'd have something on it. But I didn't think it'd make the front page."

"A murder? Of _course _it would make the front page." Satoko pointed out. "But wait a minute. You knew about this?"

Mion almost gasped, as if she wasn't really paying attention to the conversation. "Y-Yeah…I heard they'd pulled in our old friend from the police department."

"You mean Oishi-san?" Rena apparently knew who she was talking about. I happened to know the name as well.

Oishi Kuraudo. The man who'd approached me on my second day in the village, asking if I'd seen anything suspicious around. I didn't like him. Not one bit. But more importantly, he'd apparently been signed on to handle this sudden killing.

"Yep. That guy's nothing but trouble."

"But wait…" Rena skimmed the article once again. "Didn't this happen in Okinomiya? And where the found the body – that street's close to Angel Mort. I hope Shii-chan got into work alright…"

"I wouldn't worry about her." Mion tried to reassure her. "My sister's a bit of a lunatic, but she can handle thos sort of stuff pretty well. I doubt she broke any ribs getting in." Mion wasn't talking about Shion's own ribs, for the record.

"Damn straight, she's a lunatic." I mumbled.

"Keiichi-kun aside… I wonder why this happened now of all times." Rika suddenly spoke up. We all looked at her with confused looks. Aside from Mion, of course. "You know – being so close to the festival. I doubt it's anything important, but…You get the idea, right?"

"Yeah…I'm sure it's just coincidence. It happened in Okinomiya, after all. Nothing to do with us…" Mion trailed off. I shot her a quick glance.

I stayed completely silent. I was actually pretty well informed of what Rika was going on about. I wasn't exactly supposed to know, but I knew enough about the village's history from that one time I talked to Oishi-san over the phone. The so called curse of Oyashiro, where two people would disappear and turn up dead around the festival every year. It apparently claimed not only Rika's parents, but Satoko's as well, and on top of that had stolen Satoko's older brother Satoshi as well.

It put me on edge, especially at first. I ended up feeling really insecure for a day or two. I actually found an old bat that apparently belonged to Satoshi and carried it around for a whole day before I more or less gave up on that idea and left it lying in my room. I figured there was definitely some tension with regards to that going around.

"But anyway… So what are we all doing for the festival?" Rena changed the subject fairly quickly. "We have Keiichi-kun this time, so…"

"Oh, that's right!" Satoko suddenly interjected. "Now we've got enough people. So how about it? Should we…Do that? Or not?"

I studied everyone's faces for a moment. It seemed they were all completely aware of whatever thing Satoko was suggesting. Leaving me in the dark once again.

"…What are you guys plotting now?"

"That's right. We didn't tell him." Rika sighed. "No point in explaining it now."

"Wait, no, there _is _a point in explaining it now! What crazy scheme are you guys going to force me through?"

"Just forget it, Kei-chan." Mion sighed. "We're not doing it."

"Why not?" Satoko pouted. "We have enough people… Last year wasn't much fun because there wasn't a boy to pick on. But this year –"

"I _knew _you'd be plotting to screw around with me… Just forget about it."

"That's what we're doing…We don't have the time to mess around this year."

Rena sighed. "I had a feeling…We hadn't talked about it yet." It seemed she definitely wanted to play whatever crazy game they were planning. Or she might've just wanted to watch me writhe in agony. Whichever.

"Well, we can just try it again next year." Rika interrupted the suddenly gloomy atmosphere with her divine radiance. "Keiichi isn't going anywhere, right?" She decided to pat me on the head for emphasis.

"That's true." Rena still seemed fairly disappointed, all things considered.

"Kei-chan. You are officially confined to this village for the next year." Mion ordered, apparently trying to lighten the mood.

"Hell no. I'm getting out of here as soon as I can."

"Don't try to run. You know how good Rena is at taking things home. She'll follow you to the ends of the earth." For some odd reason, I felt that Mion wasn't exaggerating all that much. Or at all.

"Whatever…I don't really have anywhere else to go anyway, so sure. We can do whatever the hell you have planned next year."

Rena promptly squealed, while Rika kept a rather pensive smile.

"Hoh hoh… You've signed your own death warrant." Satoko maniacally chuckled.

"On one condition. If I somehow win whatever game you're planning, you _all_ have to deal with a penalty game. Of my choosing."

"Sounds fine to me." Mion accepted my half hearted challenge. I really didn't expect to win – especially now that they had about a year's head start to plan for it.

"Only to be expected." Satoko grinned. "I'll accept."

"If you're going to… I might as well." Rika almost bashfully agreed. There's _no_ _way_ she could've guessed what I was planning… Could she?

"Hm…What to wear…What to wear…" Rena was apparently in a world of her own. But it seemed she'd already guessed what my penalty game would be. Damn…I need to rethink my strategy.

From that point onward, the talking became much more animated. In other words, I leaned backward and popped a water balloon that Satoko had ever so stealthily been holding in place for much longer than I had realized. But most importantly, it was a normal discussion. It was a regular day for our club. That was pretty much all I could have asked for.

After school was finished and the club disbanded – after another game of Old Maid that I had no chance in hell of winning, no less – I decided I'd go ahead and call Shion out on her petty prank while she was out in public. Okinomiya wasn't all that far by bus, and if I got lucky I'd make it there without having to wait all that long.

Of course on my way, something else caught my attention. I heard two children whispering amongst themselves.

"Did you hear?"

"About what?"

"About the girl who died in Okinomiya."

"Oh, yeah…Do you think they did it?"

"Who?"

"The Sonozakis." The child spoke in a very soft voice, but loud enough that I could hear them.

"I don't think so…But don't even go around talking like that. You don't want anyone knowing you think so."

"But…Do you think it has to do with the rumor?"

"What rumor?"

I was suddenly interested. Was there a rumor going around? It must have been amongst the younger children, considering how it hadn't reached my ears before now. Was it somehow related to that Okinomiya incident?

"You haven't heard? The beast at the junkyard… You don't know about it?"

"No…It sounds scary, though."

Eventually the two of them walked too far away for me to listen in without drawing attention. My curiosity getting the better of me, I went looking for Rika. She'd most likely know enough about this rumor to give me the rest of the details.

Luckily, I found her in the school, about to head out to her bike.

"Hey, Rika-chan?"

She turned to greet me, slightly surprised at my sudden appearance.

"Oh – Keiichi. What's up?"

"I was wondering…There's that weird rumor going around. But it seems only the younger kids know about it."

"Oh…That." Rika sighs. "Well, long story short, it's nothing to worry about."

"But what was the rumor? I'm a bit curious."

"If you really want to know, a couple of kids were playing near the junkyard late at night a week or two ago. They supposedly saw someone there who was carrying two large sacks. Of course their first reaction to the strange person in the middle of the night was to call them a monster, so that's why it's a rumor about a monster. But anyway, they saw the person bury the two sacks beneath the trash before they ran off into the night. They were a bit freaked out, so the rumor kicked off that way."

"So…How is it nothing to worry about? That sounds a bit alarming to me. Who knows what could've been in those bags?"

"Well, the person they saw was Rena."

"Rena?"

"Well, yeah. They were playing near this one spot that Rena likes to hide out in. She brings a ton of cute things with her and keeps them all in one place…That's what they saw."

"Oh…So Rena hangs around there. And she was out in the middle of the night… It sounds just like her." I sighed. Typical. Rena taking things home being the source of a scary rumor. It was almost too fitting.

"So yeah. It's nothing to worry about…Anyway, I need to get going. Satoko won't be happy if I'm late for dinner again."

"Oh, right. I'll see you tomorrow."

With a small wave, Rika ran past me and outside to head on home.

I sat on the floor for a moment to collect my thoughts.

Rena was the source of that rumor. And here I thought it was something serious. Oh well – I guess it doesn't matter all that much. But it seemed like Mion's tension had rubbed off on me. I was having trouble putting that Okinomiya business out of my mind. But more importantly, I was concerned with the group's reaction to it. Mion was clearly on edge. Rika was leaving important details out when she mentioned the festival. Rena was quick to change the topic when I started paying attention.

There was something certainly up. But I decided to return home and sleep on it. Shion could wait for the time being. I had a strange feeling that things around here were about to get much worse. For all I knew Shion might have had something to do with it. But ultimately I couldn't think about leaving the village right now, even for just a short time. Who knew when things would suddenly get worse?

* * *

_Later that Evening (June 8th, 1983)  
__Rena Ryuugu_

The moment I began my task, I prayed to Oyashiro-sama. Because I knew that now would be my ultimate hour of need.

Under normal circumstances, my purpose here at the practically forbidden junkyard may have been to once again deposit trinkets at my secret hideaway. But in this instance the circumstances were _far_ from normal. In fact, the circumstances of not only this evening but those of this past week in its entirety are quite possibly as far from normal as feasibly possible. Here I was, about to perform something that Rena Ryuugu as you know her would never even think to do unless the situation called for it.

I dug through the piles of trash, much like I did on a regular basis. Today I was simply rummaging through trash, with only my objective in mind. The occasional rumor about this place never scared me away before, and even if a whole pack of kids manage to take notice of what has happened here in the past few days I would still be here, protecting this place. All that I cared about was the nature of this place. It's a place of sanctuary that I can use to escape from the world I hate so much. And no matter what came through here, no one was allowed to defile this place.

And so I was not here to add to my collection – I was instead here to find something. Something I knew without a doubt in my mind was buried beneath here – in this exact spot. All I had to do was simply keep on searching until I found it. And once I did there would be no hiding the truth from me.

To the children, it was nothing but a rumor. It was just a rumor that most of them would forget once something more exciting came up. But the reality was that the so called monster the two had seen was not me. And in all likelihood, the monster they were referring to was identical to the one that I had in mind.

I rummaged through the garbage, almost frantic in pace. I was completely calm and would remain so, but there was still the reality of it all that ran chills down my spine whenever I thought about it. If I allowed this to continue, then there would be no hope. That so called beast could never be allowed to cross paths with me ever again.

There wasn't much time left. But depending on how far deep the thing I was looking for was buried there might not be any time left after all. But I had to keep on going. It was of the utmost importance that I complete my task. Otherwise… If I allowed things to stay the way they were, there wouldn't be much hope.

But I began to wonder, as I pushed aside pile of trash after pile of trash, unearthing nothing but things of my own no matter how far down I seemed to go. What if it wasn't possible? What if I couldn't avoid it no matter how hard I tried? Is a peaceful life with my friends that much to ask for? Was there some underlying reason as to why the things I wanted were always so out of reach? My best friend, chasing after the boy I fell in love with… My father, abandoning the last fragment of the shell that was our family –

But I was willing to give it up. I was willing to accept that I would never have the things I desired most. I was willing to give it all up, if it meant I could just _be_ with them…

What was hidden away in this place – without a doubt, if I was unable to obtain it there would be no future for me, or for those I cared about. The loss of everything I had spent my life building – through good and bad, the one thing that has always stood was the bond I held with the club. No matter what seemed to happen, I could always escape to them – my dearest friends. But when something so foreign endangered them and more or less everyone else around me, there was no other choice than to fight it. And so I continued to dig through the trash, quite possibly looking for something that was never truly there in the first place.

But eventually my pace became sluggish, and as the seconds went by my resolve seemed to vanish entirely.

I slammed my fists against a rusted traffic sign nearby. Letting out a loud grunt, I lifted it and hurled it as far as I could in a random direction. Panting, I slumped to the ground in defeat.

I had to face reality. There was no reason to proceed with this any longer. I had a purpose but no means to complete that purpose. Because no matter how hard I tried, there would be no way to overcome that thing. Even if I found what it had hidden here. Because, much that girl in Okinomiya had been dealt with, I would likely not even live to expose the truth to anyone.

I was willing to give up Keiichi. I was willing to even die in his place at this point. I abandoned everything I desired. So why couldn't I accomplish this task? What was holding me back? Why, even if I abandoned everything, could I still not achieve anything?

In that moment, even though I am slumped against the ground, I catch a glimpse of it. The so called monster.

It stares at me from the far side, apparently trying to hide underneath some of the trash. It wasn't doing a particularly good job of it, however. Its glowing red eyes pierced through the darkness that was slowly but steadily covering the junkyard as the sun was setting. The more time passed, the brighter and more menacing that glow became. It stared me down for quite some time, not making an even slight movement. Perhaps it had yet to realize that I had seen it. But eventually the sun set entirely, the moon taking its place. And in that moment it seemed to shift rather sporadically, as if released from a spell that kept it from moving.

Eventually, sensing that the time was right, it slowly moves towards me, exposing itself to the moonlight. I could clearly see it now. The skull of the deer, the chains, the menacing red arm – I could clearly see the beast. A beast that at this point I was all too familiar with.

"So…It was you after all. You know, you're not very good at hiding."

The beast snarls at me in response.

"You aren't stupid enough to try and fight me again. You know how well that worked out for you last time."

The beast seemed to growl in a much more irritated tone. It seemed that it _could_ understand me after all. And it knew enough to understand that I had just insulted it.

In all reality, this monster could easily cleave me in two in a single instant. But talking tough apparently seemed to work in my favor. Especially considering how I had something hidden nearby that was just about as deadly as this beast was.

"Back away. Leave this place now. Before someone else sees you. You don't want to get into another fight."

But the beast chose to ignore my warning, despite hesitating for quite some time. In that instant it lunged towards me. But my reflexes were almost as fast, and so I was able to draw the machete I'd been hiding amongst the trash with a large enough window to approximate where the beast's neck was going to be. As I had already encountered this monster once before, I had a decent idea of how it fought. More or less, it relied on the helplessness of the target. Its attacks were brutal, quick, and deadly, but they lacked focus. It was likely due to a large wound on its chest that I happened to notice during our previous bout. Despite that, it seemed to be aware of when it was outmatched or, in this case, outmaneuvered.

Sure enough, it stopped midway, with its claw only a few inches from my throat. But now I could no longer see it completely – it was concealed by the shadows of a tall pile of trash. This could end badly if I

"That's much better. Don't forget – I let you get away because that girl got involved. But this time, I'm not going to be holding back."

But as I spoke my words that had no true backing, the beast seemed to move. But there wasn't any sign of aggression, or of any sort of attack. It just seemed to move, ever so slightly. I didn't understand the meaning, and for a brief moment I almost let my guard down as I focused intently on its legs. But there was no sign of movement at all. It simply stood there, breathing heavily.

But eventually, I caught it. Its legs shifted ever so slightly. It was such a quick movement I wouldn't have noticed at all if I hadn't specifically been paying attention to its legs. As I tried to determine what its next move would be –

It happened so suddenly. It was such a quick and instant movement that I didn't fully register what had happened until well after it had landed its blow on me. It was almost as if I had hallucinated it entirely – as if I'd only been seeing things.

But that didn't change the fact that half of my vision vanished, along with most of my right eye as the beast swung at me.

I backed up and grimaced in pain. But my threshold for pain was high enough that I was able to endure it, even if for a moment. I swung my cleaver, definitely landing a solid blow to the beast's side. It howled at me before in a completely inhuman way set my shirt on fire with a single flashing of its eyes. I once again was struck with a wave of terror, falling to the ground and flailing about every which way, attempting to put the fire out. I ended up managing to tear off the burning part of the cloth, so without any serious injury I managed to rise to my feet for one last ditch effort at defeating this monster.

I gave up everything. I have nothing to lose anymore. I let Mion have Keiichi all to herself. I let my father run off with that deranged woman. I had nothing to live for. So I didn't fear dying. And yet this was my limit. No matter what I put at stake, no matter what I left behind. It wasn't fair. It wasn't right.

I looked to the sky.

"Is this not good enough for you…? Are you going to let me die like this? After everything I did in your name? Are you going to ignore me? Even though I was friends with everyone? Even though I acted so selfless time and time again? Even though I acted like a good little girl and went running back to your side?"

At that moment I cursed not just myself, but Oyashiro-sama. Because there was no sense in believing in such a deity. Because even when I needed it the most, it never helped me.

"Go to hell… Go to hell and never come back..."

At this point the beast closed in on me, ignoring the flames and going in for what I believed would be the kill. With a sickening crunch, the beast claimed my arm in its entirety, leaving a searing wound behind that took away what little energy I had left.

With a mighty roar the beast took off, dashing towards the pile of trash I had been digging through. Covering it up with as much haste as it could muster, it took off once again in the opposite direction, vanishing into the night. I finally let out a high pitched scream, my brain having caught up with the rest of my body. I doubled over, my vision swimming with red spots. Eventually my vision became so hazy that all I could see was red. There was no feeling where my arm should have been. There was nothing whatsoever – not even pain.

But suddenly, I felt my chest tighten and my eyes close on their own. I could still see nothing but red. I was simply there, not able to control any part of my body. Not dead, but not exactly very alive either.

In the end, everything faded into the red. And soon I knew no more.

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

And so concludes the introductory bit of the story. Yes, the ending was pretty dark. But it's going to get a bit worse, come the next two chapters.

Also, if you're worried about the length, not all episodes are going to be 10k words long. This was just an introductory bit. The next one will be as well, but they will gradually get to around 6k.

Now I'm going to take the time to explain how this story progresses. As you've likely noticed, the chapter was labeled with "Episode 1" on top of the chapter name.

This story will have a particular sort of progression. Each chapter that takes place in Hinamizawa will be broken into three episodes (and will have the same narrator throughout with no change). With each set of episodes are two main chapters, one before and one after. The second main chapter that is tied to the three episodes marks the end of that individual arc. The following chapter will be the first main chapter of the next arc, followed by three more episodes of a chapter, and so on and so forth. Those that read _End Dreamer_ are probably familiar enough with this sort of thing.

So for a flow chart:

Main Chapter, Three Episodes, Main Chapter. Main Chapter, Three Episodes, Main Chapter. Main Chapter, Three Episodes, etc.

This story is basically going to provide more focus on Hinamizawa itself than the last story. As a result, the main story is going to act as a bit of a frame. At least at the start.

This will go on until four arcs are completed, as is the standard. And then we'll see where things will go from there.

There's still a bit more to the story progression, but that won't be important for another two chapters… So, until then, I bid you all farewell.


	3. Nebulous Dream Chapter, Episode 2

_**Nebulous Dream Chapter, Episode 2**_

_13 Days Remain (June 17__th__, 1983)  
__Keiichi Maebara_

In retrospect, it was probably a good idea that I didn't head over to Okinomiya to chew out Shion. Otherwise, Rena would likely be dead right about now. Not that she's going to live through this anyway, but hey. At least I managed to give her a chance…

It was all an incredible stroke of luck. I'd been walking back home from the school, but upon noticing Rena running off somewhere in a hurry, I decided it would be best to chase her down. Unfortunately it took me awhile to figure out where she was headed, even though I'd just heard the story from Rika a few minutes before. I ended up looking around for her – and then I found her the way she was. All I knew at the time was that she was in danger and I had to help her.

I was lucky that the Irie Clinic was so close to the junkyard. Otherwise I doubt that Rena would've lasted as long as she has. Even now I can't even begin to comprehend exactly what went on, even though it was already such a long time afterward.

Of course I've had plenty of time to think afterward. Considering how only a day or two later the police were at my doorstep requesting that I spend the next several days at the clinic. And so here I was, on the seventeenth, having more or less been questioned by what I thought to be the entirety of the Okinomiya police department.

Right now, however, the clinic was more or less completely empty. It seemed like Irie was the only one who ran things around here, although I hadn't actually been past the waiting room. Regardless, there was no one else here at the moment – it was in the middle of the week, and any visitors for Rena would've still been in school. I was here only because I was the one who found her. But this worked out in the end – I wanted to be the first to hear about any change in her condition.

Oishi-san finally came in the other day to question me, and it would seem they wanted me to hang around here until the investigation was completed. Of course the detailed investigation would follow a complete sweep of the junkyard and a thorough examination of the wounds on Rena's body, as well as comparisons between her wounds and the Okinomiya victim wounds. I'd gotten myself injured on my way out of the junkyard, so I was pretty much stuck in the clinic for the first day or two anyway despite my injuries being nowhere near as severe as Rena's…

All that I could even bear to remember was the pool of blood Rena was lying in. I don't even want to think about what her arm looked like. But the more I dwelled on it, the more I seemed to recall. Clearly whatever had attacked her wasn't human. Not by any means. There was no way any weapon could leave a wound quite like the one she suffered. But even more importantly was the exposure to decaying metal. Irie was able to confirm right off the bat that her bloodstream was infected and she would end up with all sorts of problems afterward, even if she _did_ survive the blood loss. And that in itself was still up for grabs. On top of that, there was her comatose state. She'd been unconscious for nine days – even if she _did_ lose her arm, I doubted that she would be stuck in a coma just because of that.

Late into the day yesterday, everyone came by all at once to check up on us. For awhile it was just Mion by herself or Rika with Satoko, but yesterday the whole pack aside from Shion was present. Rena was obviously still in no condition to be seen, so the lot of them just doted over me. I wasn't particularly in the mood for the colored commentary Mion had planned, nor was I inclined to tolerate Satoko's usual pompous attitude. I might have yelled at someone at some point, but all I really remember was the lot of them leaving in complete silence.

I continued staring into space, still mulling things over. There wasn't any sort of indication of when or if Rena would wake. So at this point I figured the visits would either stop or grind to a halt since no one could even get into the room to see her. More importantly, Watanagashi was coming up – as in two days from now. So I'd likely miss all of that. But on top of that, I wouldn't see head or tail of Mion or any of the others since they would all be busy with that stuff. I'd more or less be stuck in this clinic with Irie until the investigation finished. And that would certainly take longer than another day or two.

But much to my surprise, at around ten o'clock, I actually had a visitor.

Rika entered the clinic and, giving me her usual smile, walked towards the back room that I had been completely denied access to without so much as speaking a word to me. She was obviously here for some other purpose.

A few minutes later, she emerged, nearly in tears. She ran over to me and buried her face in my shirt. It all happened so quickly, so it took me a few seconds to figure out that I should embrace her.

"Ah, my shirt…Eh, whatever. Take as long as you want." I speak somewhat softly.

She nods her head slightly and continues crying into my shirt. This was certainly a first – I'd never even seen Rika depressed before, let alone being moved to tears. But I decided to let the storm pass. Whatever had just happened probably didn't put her at any more ease than she had already been.

Eventually Rika's light sobbing subsided and I finally got to say something to her.

"What happened?"

"…I saw Rena…She's…It was a bit too much." She looks up at me, her face still streaked with tears and her eyes red. "She's…I…I…Her skin…" She shook her head, trying to get the image out of her head. I hadn't been aware that the infection had spread already. I figured I wouldn't be able to stomach looking at her either.

"I know…It's not something you needed to see."

"I had to…I couldn't help it."

"I understand…But, did Irie say anything?"

She shook her head. "She's still comatose. She's not going to wake up, at least not any time soon."

"But if she wakes up…"

"…She's not going to. Let's just hope that she doesn't."

"Rika…"

"Isn't it better that way? If she never wakes up again?"

I thought long and hard about what Rika said to me, long after she left the clinic. There was certainly some truth to what she was saying. Unless Rena somehow made a full recovery, there wouldn't be an even slight chance that she'd be anything like the Rena we knew.

I sighed before collapsing on the sofa. I didn't have all that much energy to mull these things over. I'd already lost more than enough sleep, what with Oishi-san's questioning and Irie's medication hurting like hell whenever I took any of it – I could just fall asleep right now. But my constant worrying kept me up. Eventually Irie deemed it time for dinner and I was given the usual hospital food, only here it was clinic food and apparently even weaker in quality.

In the end I didn't really get any sleep that night. I just kept thinking about Rena. Ultimately I never really came to a conclusion about what she wanted– I couldn't make a call like that. I just hoped that she improved. But the chances of her doing so were still so slim.

Eventually I decided that it was not my place to decide what Rena did with herself after this ordeal was over. I just hoped that she had the chance to decide afterward.

Instead, I chose to focus on another point of interest. The state of Rena's arm. The murder in Okinomiya. Without a doubt the two were connected. Whatever strange creature was responsible for the damage done to that one child was certainly responsible for attacking Rena. And in the end I had a feeling that it was going to attack again.

I'd tried bringing it up with the others. But I had a feeling they'd just dismiss it as post traumatic stress. I was definitely stressed. But this wasn't some hallucination. Irie had to know about it, considering how he had been monitoring the wound the entire time. Rena's attacker – whatever it was, it was a threat to us all. I decided there was no point in worrying over Rena if there was a chance that more or less the same thing could happen to anyone else. I wanted to somehow stop it. But the more I thought about it, the more I began to believe that there was nothing that could be done.

* * *

_11 Days Remain (June 19__th__, 1983)_

I had to put everything out of my mind. Even if it was just for this one day.

Watanagashi had arrived, and by some stroke of luck I was released from the clinic only two days later. Apparently Oishi had pretty much rounded out the investigation. It turned out that I was even a suspect for quite some time, but considering how I was the one who ran her to the clinic and after all of the extensive searching and comparisons and alibi profiling there wasn't a murder weapon in sight – or any sign of Rena's missing arm, for that matter – they decided I could go free. I now have a bone to pick with Oishi the next time I see him, but aside from that everything worked out well on my end.

The main event went on at the Furude Shrine. I pretty much went straight there from the clinic, and so no one really knew I was out and about quite just yet. Along the way I noticed the streets were practically clean – there wasn't anyone at all in any of the yards or in any of the stores – it seemed like the Watanagashi Festival really was the most important event in the village.

Upon my arrival, I ended up browsing through the stands, considering how Mion and the others were nowhere in sight. I figured they'd show up eventually, so I decided I could stand the wait. The festival was pretty much packed with food and game stands. The food was so varied and seemed so well cooked that all of it had clearly been planned – probably pretty far in advance too. All of it was homemade and, even though I was pretty sure there was stuff in it besides squid, the takoyaki actually tasted pretty damn good for once. And I _never _find takoyaki anywhere that doesn't taste like crap. Someone apparently failed to prepare some specialty fast enough and had to settle for preparing udon – which I promptly bought and devoured, much to the man's surprise. And probably amusement, if his dumb smile told me anything. I find myself enjoying the food quite a bit. It was certainly a nice breath of fresh air from that hospital food and Irie's crappy tea. It also helped me get my mind off of things, at least for a bit.

The games were all fairly crude, although there was this one really strange video game battle themed one where you take a laser pointer and flash it at these big red cardboard cutout symbols, and once you hit enough the guy running the stall would switch to blue ones and if you hit three of them in a row you had four seconds to pick a playing card and if you picked the one with the highest value your score went up or something – I really didn't get it, but apparently it was based around some computer game that came out fairly recently. I doubted I'd find myself playing it any time soon. It seemed too confusing to me. But it was popular, though. I saw a bunch of kids walking around with cut out military badges pinned to their shirts.

The festival was lively like this – it was all very relieving. I definitely needed to come here, especially after everything that had happened. It definitely helped to get some of the poison out. But it was missing something – and that something came crashing into me at mach speed, almost completely knocking me off balance which would've sent me crashing into some poor kid standing behind me.

I found Mion giving me the tightest hug I thought was possible. Of course with our combined weight she had to pull back slightly. Otherwise I would've dragged her down with me.

"You escaped, huh?" She beamed at me with an incredibly broad smile. It seemed she was incredibly happy to see me. I couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed.

"Knowing the right way to hide under a cardboard box is a wonderful thing." I decided to keep things going.

"The next time you get a penalty game, you're going to teach us how."

"Forget it. It takes five years of intense training on Mount Fuji to even come close to my level. None of you would survive the first week." I responded in the most dramatic way possible.

"Have you ever even _been_ to Mount Fuji?"

"Sure I have."

"Liar." She finally let me go and lightly pushed me. I was somewhat relieved. If she stayed like that for even a moment longer I might not have been able to resist the urge to hug her back. And lord knows what kind of trouble that could've caused.

Behind her Rika and Satoko appeared. Rika was wearing the miko outfit that came with being the sole surviving Furude – if I recalled correctly, she was going to be performing the annual ritual later this evening.

Satoko gave me and enthusiastic wave while Rika beamed at me as per the usual. The conversation that started after that more or less just went on and on. The three of them couldn't figure out how we were going to spend the solitary hour of free time that Rika had before she had to go prepare, but eventually, after _way _too much deliberation we decided to have an eating contest by the takoyaki stand. It seemed that while Mion wasn't going to go all out with her planned game, we were at least going to unwind just a little.

But most importantly was the simple fact that we _were_ going to unwind. And that it was Mion's suggestion. Either she was still trying to put up a front or things had definitely improved.

I saw my chance to win a club game for the first time in weeks. My stomach was still begging for food, and I already knew the secret to more or less inhaling the takoyaki since I'd had about 1000 yen worth of practice. I didn't really care if this stuff killed me – it was a club game. And I had the advantage for once…

…Can I get a drum roll?

…Oh, whatever. Of course I still lost. Because Mion is some sort of demon. I came in second, though. So the penalty game was dumped on Satoko, who finished only seconds after Rika. We decided to leave the details for later since we ended up having enough time to try some of the game stands while Rika was still around.

We ended up playing that laser pointer game again, in which I came in second purely because I had played it before. Mion still beat me by a mile, getting that weird looking badge with all the arrows on it that was apparently the best one you could get. Satoko ended up losing once again, although Rika offered to take the penalty game for her. I ended up being lucky – having run the whole festival once already I managed to avoid grabbing a single penalty game. I felt a bit sorry for Satoko, who despite Rika's good will still ended up with a grand total of three.

Eventually Rika had to leave us, and Satoko more or less wandered off to talk with some of her other friends, leaving Mion alone with me. We ended up hanging around the stairs leading up to the shrine, since in all of the planning she had put into the festival Mion apparently had forgotten to add benches of some sort. The sun was actually starting to get pretty low. I didn't even notice that so much time had gone by.

"…Today was fun, wasn't it?" Mion broke the silence that I didn't even notice had settled in.

"Sure was…Too bad Rena couldn't be here for it."

"Yeah…Next year we have to help her cheat."

"As long as I don't end up with any penalty games."

"You didn't today, did you?"

"Well, that's only because I did a run of the festival before."

"And I _still_ beat you every time?"

"I've accepted that you're more skilled than I am at everything. There's no arguing it, so I'm just going to throw in the towel."

Mion laughed slightly. "Well, thinking like that you'll never win any games."

"I'm not going to win any anyway. I'll just…I don't know, but I'll manage."

"Kei-chan…You're no fun."

"What? Don't act like I didn't almost win that game of table tennis."

"What are you talking about? I beat you on the third serve."

"Wait…Then was it that laser pointer one? Or the…You know what, forget it."

She laughed again before falling silent.

I silently gazed at her, but only from an angle. She was clearly content at the moment, which made me think. Maybe she was just stressed out over the festival after all. But there was still that very brief scene she made in the hallway the day Rena was attacked. There had to be something more to it. But I didn't want to ask her. She seemed genuinely at ease right now.

Of course the more I gazed at her the warmer my face became. I quickly glance away when it seems that her face is moving in my direction. Crap, I need to stop doing that…

"…I wonder. Did I already miss my chance at teasing you two? Did you start dating already, or what?"

My thoughts were interrupted by a somewhat familiar voice. Looking up I saw Shion standing over the two of us. Mion's face was pretty much beet red for whatever reason while I just gave Shion a 'oh, it's you, I still haven't forgotten about that firewood business' sort of look. If you can even figure out what that sort of look would look like.

"W-Why you…" Mion was all ready to start yelling at her twin for her comment.

"Oh, so then I'm not too late. Then you won't mind if I borrow Kei-chan for a few minutes?" She said in an obviously fake sweet tone of voice before grabbing me by the arm and dragging me off into the festival crowd, leaving Mion shouting behind us.

"Hey, I've got a bone to pick with you, you know? Where are you even taking me, anyway?"

"I'm sure you do. But right now I need you to do something for me."

"Again, huh? You want me to go hunt a deer for you this time?" At this point I noticed she had led me off of the shrine grounds and to some area behind the shrine.

"…Heh. You might not be that far off target, Kei-chan." She said with a very mischievous grin.

"Are you serious? Hey, just let go of me –"

"Shh…" She puts a finger to my lips to quiet me down. She crouches to the ground behind some bushes and pulls me down with her. "…Look over that way."

I looked in the direction she was pointing. Through the bushes I saw what appeared to be some sort of storehouse. In front of it were two people I'd never seen before, one a man wearing a green hat and a similar colored shirt and the other a woman with blonde hair, wearing a green sweater. The two of them were apparently trying to get into whatever storehouse it was.

"Any idea who they are?"

"Jirou Tomitake and Miyo Takano. They're visitors. But they're staying in the village for a short while. They come around pretty much every year for the festival. Tomitake takes pictures since he's a professional, and…I'm really not sure what Takano does. But they're not supposed to be here anyhow."

"So what is that building?"

"That's the Furude Shrine Storehouse. Only a member of the Furude clan is allowed to enter it." Shion whispered to me.

"Then what the hell are they doing over there?"

"We're going to find out."

Eventually, the two of them managed to get the old looking padlock off of the door. The storehouse door slid open and the pair walked inside.

"Let's go." Shion stood and slowly crept towards the storehouse. I decided it would be best if I followed her. We came close enough to the entrance so we could hear the two of them inside without being seen.

Their conversation was peculiar indeed.

"Figures this would be a dead end… I wonder if they would even hide it in here." The man spoke quietly.

"I for one didn't think so. But we had to do what we had to do." The woman replied.

"I'm still a bit worried about that curse."

"Don't be ridiculous, Jirou-san…Two people go missing, and one of them turns up dead? The Oyashiro Curse isn't anything to worry about. Not with that thing running around."

"It's happened once a year for the last several. You think it'd take off the one year someone is _actually doing_ something blasphemous?"

"We have bigger problems. I'm not one for superstition, but then again this doesn't even fully fall under superstition to begin with."

"But you're _sure_ the Furude girl summoned it?"

"Doubtless."

"And it's not the Kimiyoshi's pet? Of that you're sure?"

"I'm sure. And don't even ask about the Sonozaki's. You already know where theirs is hidden."

"Right…But this is still so hard to believe. Can we still go through with the plan if we don't figure out where it is?"

"Sure. Don't forget it has to play by our rules. It's in our world, after all."

"…I still don't really get it."

"Well, maybe you just don't have a knack for psychology."

"I'm a photographer. Of course I don't."

But before we could hear any more of that conversation, Shion suddenly grabbed me by the wrist and we both ran off. Eventually, once we got closer to the shrine, she stopped, allowing me to catch my breath before she dragged me further down the path, back down the stairs and almost all the way to the street.

"Wait…What was all of that about?" I finally got to ask her.

Shion's expression was completely serious. There was no hint of the lighthearted mood she appeared to be in only a short while ago. "…Listen, I shouldn't have brought you there. But I needed you to understand what's going on."

"Wait, you know about…"

"About the thing that attacked Rena? Yeah… It's a bit of a long story, and I don't even know the full details. But all you need to know for now is that the only one you can trust is Mion. I would stop trusting _me_ fairly soon too if I were you."

"Wait, what are you talking about?"

Shion's gaze drifted up towards the shrine. "There's something wrong here…Can't you feel it? It's like there's a something missing, but there's something that's been... Added, I guess? There's something here in this village that absolutely isn't supposed to be here. And now that I think about it, it's all got to do with that death in Okinomiya and Rena's attack. I didn't even think about it before now…But clearly, it's not supposed to be that way."

"I have _no_ idea what you're saying…But if you want me to trust Mion, I'll trust her."

Shion smiles softly at me. "Thanks, Kei-chan."

"But…What was it? What gave Rena that inhuman wound?"

"It's a demon."

"A demon? Like a... _demon_ sort of demon?"

"Yeah... A demon. And I have a feeling it's going to swallow this village whole unless we do something about it. But I'm not taking you any further into this. You just need to sit back and keep Mion safe. You understand?"

"…I guess so. I don't like it – not one bit – but I'll accept that."

"You have to _know_ so. Mion's trying to handle this whole problem on her own."

"Isn't that what _you're _trying to do?"

Shion paused for just a moment. "But you have to understand…There's much more to this than just angels and demons. And Mion is trying to fight them all on her own. She doesn't know where to start, while I've almost found the solution. You have to protect her. That's your job. Alright?"

All I could do was nod my head.

Shion smiled at me one last time before she disappeared into the night. I was left sitting on the side of the road alone.

A demon. A demon had attacked Rena. A demon was responsible for the tragedy that befell her.

How the hell am I supposed to fight a demon…?

But Shion was clearly giving her all towards dealing with it…So should I just leave it to her for now? She told me to protect Mion, so I figured that's what I was going to do.

In the end I really didn't have that much of a choice in the matter. The demon was certainly something far out of my league. It was probably far out of Shion's league as well, but ultimately I really didn't know the first thing about it, while Shion seemed to have already formulated some sort of a counter strike. I knew it wouldn't be particularly right of me to just let her handle things on her own but I had to do it. After all, if what Shion said was true, Mion definitely needed protecting.

Shion had mentioned that Mion was apparently trying to deal with all of this stuff on her own. So my initial suspicions had been right after all – she'd been completely set off by the whole incident in Okinomiya and whatever it meant for the village. I'd have to track her down as quickly as I could – although at this point I'd only really have luck if I checked the Sonozaki estate. There wasn't anywhere else she could be at the moment, given how the shrine activities were winding down.

On my way out I realized I'd missed watching Rika perform the ritual, but there were far more important things to worry about right now. I'd apologize to her later, but right now I needed to find Mion. Preferably sooner than later. Of course I'd probably just get lost again, and in all likelihood I'd be late for another extremely vital event like with Rena.

I almost broke out into a jog, heading down the road that I was fairly certain led to the Sonozaki estate at a much faster pace than normal. I hadn't considered before that the estate was on the other side of town. I certainly hoped that I made it before something had the chance to happen. If Shion was this persistent about having me defend Mion it was a sure indicator that something else was going to happen, and fairly soon at that.

But at some point I ended up tripping on some random piece of trash and falling, landing face first on the sidewalk. I really needed to stop doing that, even if it was just some litterer's fault. I'd been doing more tripping and falling in the last week than I've done my whole life. I got up without much issue. I was having a bit of a luck streak, though, in the sense I have a nice track record of not breaking any bones.

I quickly checked my pockets to make sure I hadn't dropped anything – and much to my surprise, there was some sort of crumpled paper in my right pocket. I was fairly certain I hadn't wrapped up anything, nor had I even gone through my pockets for the bulk of the day. Pulling it out, I unraveled the paper to find that it's a letter – a double sided letter from Mion. I start reading it, and from the first line or so I can pretty much sense the urgency of the letter.

_Kei-chan,_

_I know by the time you read this it'll probably be too late since you're an idiot and all and probably wouldn't even think to go through your pockets, but I have to give you this letter in complete secrecy either way. In case you were wondering, I dropped this in your pocket during that really awkward hug I'm planning on giving you. Sorry for playing with your feelings. I'll show you the real deal next time._

_But you have to know. You're being watched. You're being watched and there's nothing that I can do about it. I don't even know exactly who it is that's stalking you, but you're still being stalked. I need to warn you – don't go back to the clinic. Don't go back home. Just stay as far away from all the places people would think you'd go to. _

_I tried my best. I tried my best but I just couldn't deal with it all on my own. You don't have the slightest idea how difficult it was, considering how you spent most of the last week sleeping in the clinic, but I'm not going to hold that against you. It's better if you don't know the details anyway. I don't want to get you involved. But I just have to say that I'm sorry. _

_I can pretty much guess that by the time you read this you'll have already heard about the demon running around the village. I think it's responsible for the death in Okinomiya too, but that's about all I know. But what I do know is that the village has a curse, and the demon is working in tandem with that curse. People will start disappearing and dying – and I don't have any reason to believe that I won't be targeted. That's all I can tell you in good conscience. _

_If it turns out that I end up dead by the time you read through this, I need you to take Rika and flee the village. Don't go to my sister. In fact, avoid her altogether. As long as the two of you can get out, there might be some hope left for this place. But if it comes down to it, I'd rather have you save yourself and leave the rest of us. You aren't responsible for any of this, so you shouldn't have to suffer for it. _

Beneath those lines were what appeared to be a large number of eraser marks. It seemed that she had written more but decided to omit it from the letter. There wasn't even any sort of closing – I guess she just assumed I'd know it was from her. I knew her handwriting well enough for that anyhow.

"…You're the idiot, Mion."

I continued my trek down the street and towards the Sonozaki Estate. If I was being followed as she had said I was, then the best course of action would be to get to the estate where getting to me would be much harder. Unless, of course, the people attacking me were part of the family. Although why Mion would warn me at that point is beyond me, so I decided I could place my trust in her, much like Shion said.

I continued down the road, and as I rounded a corner a large white van suddenly pulled in front of me, blocking the sidewalk.

My eyes widened.

"Already…?"

Suddenly three men wearing white public service uniforms emerged from the van. All three of them were holding what appeared to be police batons. I knew I could turn and run, but ultimately these men would outrun me if I did much of anything. I glanced around, scoping out the area for some sort of escape. There wasn't any. I was going to have to face these men head on without any sort of weapon.

"…Look, kid, it's nothing personal. We just need to take you in. Go quietly, and there won't be any trouble."

Like hell was I going to go quietly. But even if I did try to fight them off, what good could come of it? There was no way anyone in a situation like mine could defend himself without any sort of a weapon. I didn't have much choice but to go quietly.

But then a stroke of luck. I could hear a car coming down the road. Eventually I caught a glimpse of it. It was heading down the road – in other words, only I was able to see it, as it was to the backs of the three men. They more or less had no clue it was even there. I decided to take my chances. It's not like another miracle opportunity was going to show itself after I passed up the first one.

As the car closed in, so did the men. But they clearly had no idea that the car was even there. Either that or they simply didn't pay any attention to it. I glanced towards my destination – the other side of the street, which I could get to with a single mad dash. Once I was sure the car was close enough, I pretty much leapt across the road, making it to the other side as fast as possible.

The car was only a few feet away. The driver blared the horn, so for a split second I believed I was going to get hit. But I made it across, the three men crossing the street at that exact moment.

"The hell is he doing? Get him!" One of the men shouted.

But as that man rushed out onto the street, the car slammed into him, sending him flying. The car came to a stop and the two men remaining tried to get around it, avoiding their companion entirely.

I took off up the road, not even really pausing to see that the man had been hit. Just from the sound alone I had enough evidence suggesting that if I kept running as fast as I could I might have had a fighting chance.

I continued my mad dash, but no matter how far ahead I thought I was the two men seemed to always get closer. Their screams seemed to get louder and louder each time, and without a doubt their footsteps grew louder as well. One of them apparently tossed their baton at me, which managed to land a solid hit on my shoulder. I stumbled slightly, but luckily I was able to turn the corner and make up for my lost speed.

I was losing hope. I had no way to defend myself. The two of them would close in on me in a matter of moments…

…Why? Why did this seem so familiar? Why did I feel like I'd been through something like this before? But I'd most definitely never been chased like this before. I'd be dead if I had.

My head suddenly throbbed with pain. I more or less forgot about the running and started stumbling forward, my head in my hands. I was blindly running forward with no perception of where I was running. It was only a matter of seconds before I was taken by the two men. I'd apparently run out of both options and time. I fell to the ground, the pain in my head becoming more intense by the second. Eventually, my head banged hard enough against the pavement that I blacked out completely.

It couldn't end like this, could it? Could this really be my limit? Would I have done Mion any good if this was all I was capable of?

Then was there any point to any of it? In the end, I assumed that there wasn't.

But suddenly the intense pain in my head disappeared. I breathed heavily, suddenly gasping as if my lungs had stopped working but had suddenly taken in air again.

And just as suddenly my eyes snapped open. In my right hand was a bloodied meat cleaver… How did that get there?

On the ground in front of me were the bloodied corpses of the two men… What happened to them?

Standing a few feet away were three more men, practically identical in both attire and facial features… When did they get there?

I backed up, my brain still processing a thousand thoughts a second. My eyes darted between the cleaver and the men. The three men stared me down, not making any particular movement. It seemed they were being cautious, unsure of what my next move would be. Eventually I managed to put two and two together. I'd killed the two men on the ground with the meat cleaver. And now these men were going to try and ensure that I wouldn't get at any more of them.

I breathed heavily, my exhaustion finally starting to catch up with me. I felt dizzy, but I tried my best to focus. I now apparently had a weapon. I almost had a chance now. I had to put behind the fact that I'd be killing more people for the moment. If I didn't, I'd never make it out alive. And right now, that was what was most important.

One of the men suddenly ran forward, likely aiming to tackle me to the ground before I could register the need to counter. But my arm swung with strength I never even knew I could have, and the cleaver found a home in the man's side. He doubled over to the side, still alive, but only for the moment.

The two remaining men both rushed me at the same time. But with a quick duck and two swings of my arm, one diagonally upward and one diagonally downward, both men doubled over, blood spraying from the wounds the cleaver made.

Five bodies littered the ground, surrounded by one massive pool of blood. I'd survived. I'd survived, but it still remained that I had killed my attackers.

What had happened? All I knew was something repressed seemed to take control of me. Like some sort of repressed memory that suddenly gave me the ability to kill five people with little to no effort. All I knew was that I didn't understand a single thing – I don't know where the cleaver came from. I don't know who those men were. I don't know why I was suddenly able to kill them. I don't know why I could suddenly recall fighting these men before.

But more importantly was my current physical condition. Dropping the cleaver, I stared at my hands – they were covered in blood, as were my white shirt and my shoes. I still felt incredibly drained and practically unable to move, but I had found myself murdering men twice my size only moments earlier. It was like some strange adrenaline rush that had no cause – only the effect. My hands start shaking and I continued to breathe heavily. Staring at the scene before me my brain seemed to slow back down to normal levels, and in that moment my breath became far more labored. Something was wrong with my chest, as I seemed to start hyperventilating. My vision swam and in an instant I doubled over myself, my vision fading to black. I lost consciousness only a moment later.

But when I awake, I'm in a different place entirely. I find myself sitting down, leaning against the wall of a very tall building in the middle of the rain. My shirt and pants are soaked, but at least it seemed like the blood from before had been washed off in its entirety.

I'm in a much larger city like area, somewhere that most definitely wasn't Hinamizawa. I had no idea how I had gotten there in the first place, but more importantly I had no idea where this place was. My eyes widen and I glance around, looking for something even remotely familiar. Something that could help me figure out where I was.

I spot caution tape surrounding a clearing up the road, with several police cars surrounding it. To my left and right were two smaller side roads that went off in different directions. Everything around me seemed so dark without the sun. I figure it was about midday, considering how I could still see fairly clearly around me –

But then it suddenly hits me. The most important fact of the situation was that I wasn't in Hinamizawa. What day was it? What happened to those bodies? Did someone see me? Should I even _try _to go back to the village? What if they're searching for me right now? What if I did something down the road that the cops would try to arrest me for?

What about Mion? Is she alright? What about Rika and Satoko? Did something happen in the village? Am I too late?

I slowly try to rise to my feet, finding standing only slightly difficult. I figured that heading towards the police cars would've been a particularly bad idea considering the circumstances. In all likelihood they wouldn't be investigating the deaths in Hinamizawa, but lord knows what could've gone on between the time I was still in the village and now. I don't even know how much time passed.

I walked down one of the side streets at a brisk pace, taking care not to stand out all that much. I hoped I didn't have any signs of that fight on me. Otherwise I'd likely be pulled in for questioning.

At the end of the side street, the long row of tall buildings seemed to end and I found myself in a much more open area. It was a street I was very familiar with, as the bus from Hinamizawa always stopped near here. I was in Okinomiya. As for why, I still hadn't the slightest clue. But at least I could make it back to Hinamizawa now. As long as things didn't get any worse.

I sigh with relief, heading down a much more familiar street, taking notice of all of the familiar stores. It seemed that it was indeed in the middle of the day, mainly because the one bar that was only open at night was still closed. There weren't any children about, so they were all likely still in school. If I followed the road far enough down I could probably find Angel Mort and see if Shion was around.

But then I remember Mion's letter and how she was rather tentative about having me seek out Shion for help. On top of that, Shion had given me similar advice herself. I decided against it – the sooner I made it back into the village, the better. At least I hoped so.

I made it to the bus stop without any further deliberation. It was still pouring rain and I wasn't that big a fan of water. I sit down and almost fall asleep on the spot – it seemed that despite having blacked out multiple times I was still physically exhausted.

My head rolls to the side as I tried to rest it on the back of the seat. I was thankful for the glass covering the stop provided – without it, I'd still be getting pelted with rain.

My eyes focus on the newspaper stand that normally sat outside the stop but for obvious reasons was moved underneath the covering. I stared at the visible half of the front page for a few moments, eventually registering the front page's headline.

_Okinomiya Massacre : 17 Dead, Five Missing, Neighboring Village Has Confirmed Involvement_

_Late last night, yet another incident struck Okinomiya as presumably the same culprit from the incident earlier in the week hit the streets once again, this time claiming the lives of 17 citizens and in all likelihood contributing to the five missing citizens that have yet to be found. Authorities have confirmed that all 21 people were out that evening going about their business when they were presumably attacked. A witness was also reported to the media, who reportedly stands as the only witness to the perpetrator(s) himself. The witness reported the appearance of what they believed to be "a man dressed in a long black coat with a strangely elongated arm that walked up to a woman and stabbed her through the stomach" stepping off of a one way evening bus from the neighboring village of Hinamizawa. Authorities confirmed that no visitors from Okinomiya had been present in the village that evening, and so the current suspect is doubtlessly a resident of Hinamizawa. It is still highly unlikely that there is a single perpetrator, but no evidence exists to support the existence of the described figure in the first place…_

My eyes widen.

The bus to the village pulled up to the stop at that very moment and, without reading any more of the article, I rush on board. Taking a seat, I try to calm myself down by repeating what Mion had said in her letter. That as long as Rika and I could make it out alive, there would still be hope for the village. That no matter how bad things got there was some redemption possible.

But it wasn't working.

Twenty-one people? Twenty-one people fell victim to that monster? But the village was being blamed? Certainly the monster came from the village, but more importantly, how did the monster manage to board a bus and make its way all the way here without causing any sort of issue?

…

I quickly go through my pockets, checking my wallet for however much money I had on me. My eyes widened – compared to how much I had on me the night before at the festival, I had exactly two hundred yen short – the exact amount needed for riding the bus. I almost started panicking. What ifit was _me _all along? I'd suddenly woken up in the village, and it certainly seemed as if that was the case. But then I remembered. The article detailed the monster – the last time I checked, I wasn't wearing a long coat, nor did I have some giant arm. I had evidence that it _wasn't _me who had somehow dealt with twenty one people all rather consecutively. Sighing with relief, I rolled my head to the side and stared out of the foggy window that was still being pelted by the heavy rain. I could barely see out of it, but I wasn't really staring at anything in particular. I watched as the rain it the window and, without any further movement I simply stayed there and started to think.

I had to think. If I kept thinking, I could keep myself sane. As long as I kept thinking about what was happening, the less likely I was to collapse under the pressure. The more I thought, the more I began to believe that what I was thinking was completely true.

And so I tried to examine the situation from the small number of details I had from the first quarter of that article. I regretted not quickly buying a copy of the paper, but I probably would've missed the bus if I tried to. But with what I had, I managed to figure a few things out.

First of all, the monster had taken the one way evening bus to the city from the village. This was more or less a last minute bus that not only was the last bus to go between the village and the city, but it had no stops afterward. And assuming the details in the paper were true there hadn't been any guests from Okinomiya in Hinamizawa at the time. So without a doubt the killer came from the village. That much I had already accepted.

So that evening someone had been up and about and by some miracle managed to survive and witnessed the killer. The witness likely brought up the arrival of the strange looking man the following morning after the incident. I wanted to know how the killer managed to slaughter twenty one people in a single evening without drawing the police's attention. Unless some of the victims _were_ police officers.

Of course there was no witness that saw the killer leave. And based off of circumstantial evidence I could assume that the caution tape and police cars across the street from where I woke up had to do with the killings. It would seem that I had been very close to the killer. So why did I survive? Did it somehow decide that because I was from the village it wouldn't harm me? I obviously wasn't the killer in that sense, considering how if I had slaughtered that many people and simply walked down the road, chances were that I would've woken up in the electric chair instead of on the side of the road. I decided that I had arrived there at a later time through some method.

I shook my head. There simply wasn't enough evidence to determine the identity of the culprit or who they might have been associated with, even though we had some testimony regarding them. I doubted that the rest of that article was particularly enlightening – unless it perhaps explained the connection to the village in greater detail. But without it, unless there was one person in the village who took the one way evening bus to Hinamizawa on a regular basis there was literally nothing to go off of. All I knew was that I wasn't the killer. Not by any means. Funny, though, that I was the killer in a completely unrelated incident.

I try to put those thoughts out of my mind. I close my eyes. I could at least try to get some sleep before arriving at the village. I definitely knew that I needed it.

But there was still the issue present regarding the village itself – Hinamizawa was directly implicated in this incident. If that was the case, there would doubtlessly be some bad blood between the village and Okinomiya. Was this what Mion was trying to prevent from happening? Doubtlessly this would cause all sorts of problems – what if the Sonozaki family was involved in some way? Now that connections had been drawn between the murders and the village, people would doubtlessly try to draw connections to people _in _the village. If the wrong people were implicated, no – even if the _right_ people were implicated the entire village could face disaster.

I could only hope I wasn't too late. But I had a feeling that I already was.

* * *

_9 Days Remain (June 21__st__, 1983)_

By some miracle, my bad feeling actually managed to be incorrect for once. I saw no sign of an angry mob or of any burning buildings. If not for the fact that it was raining Hinamizawa would've looked perfectly normal. There was still the issue that I had apparently been unconscious or sleep walking or whatever for a grand total of _two days_, but I tried to make the best of the situation.

If nothing apparent had happened yet, there was likely still time for me to help patch things up. I didn't know what good I was going to be, but as long as I had some sort of direction I could hopefully try to set things right. My top priority right now was to find Mion, who would likely know where Rika and Satoko were and might possibly have been trying to protect them already. As long as I could get my friends gathered together, I'd be willing to handle anything that anyone could throw at me.

Of course once I made it onto the streets my delusions of things being anything but hell on earth promptly evaporated into thin air. It had occurred to me that I had been gone for two days and whatever disaster that could have struck the village had more than twelve hours to play out.

One of the convenience stores had already been burned to the ground. There was a very small angry mob, but an angry mob none the less, trying to work its way down the street. Apparently negotiations were still fairly peaceful since I didn't spot any stray bodies lying around, so I at least had a small amount of time to go about doing things. Judging from what street they were headed down, I could pretty much guess where they were headed.

I made a beeline for the Sonozaki estate. I had no idea what the situation would have been there, but it wasn't as if I had any place else to go. For all I knew there were still more of those public service men who were out to get me.

But at some point, I heard someone calling out to me from a small alleyway between two buildings. It was Rika, just as soaked by the rain as I was. Despite everything she seemed fairly under control considering how young she was. But then again Rika acted much older than she appeared on occasion – in other words, whenever she wasn't going on about someone's cat or something like that. The 'Nipah' tries to fool you. But I'm not so easily fooled, despite myself.

"Keiichi-kun!" She called out to me. I promptly ran over to her. She sighed with relief. "Thank god you're still alive…"

"What's going on?"

"I didn't think they'd go this far…They're animals. The lot of them." Rika spoke with a certain hint of malice that I'd never heard before. It seemed she was just mad, but not mad enough to go screaming and yelling about it. "You know by now, right? That more people turned up dead?"

"…Yeah." I replied, still put off by her strange change in behavior. "But why are they raiding the village? And what about that store?"

"That store was burned down the night you disappeared." She spoke quietly. "Inside was Miyo Takano. She was a visitor who was spending the last week or so here in the village."

My eyes widened. Miyo Takano. That was the name of the woman who broke into the storage house.

"What about the guy who was with her?" I asked, not realizing that I wasn't supposed to know about the two of them.

Rika shot me a confused look. "…Tomitake-san? He's at the clinic. He suffered second degree burns, but he's probably going to be fine…But Keiichi, how did you know about those two? They weren't at the festival."

"…They weren't? But I…spoke to them that night."

"…That aside, where are you going right now?"

"I was going to head for Mion's place."

Rika shook her head. "Not a smart move. That's where this mob is heading."

"Even so, I need to make sure she's okay…" I suddenly notice that something's missing from this scene – a particular girl with blonde hair and an annoying laugh. "Wait, where's Satoko? I figured she'd be with you."

"She's already there…I was going to go find her, but then the mob… I wouldn't make it fast enough, especially without my bike."

"Oh…Right. That would do it…If we're going to get there, we need to beat the mob… But since there's two of us, there's only one thing we can do."

"Should I force you to carry me bridal style?" She said with a rather out of place mischievous grin.

"No… I'm going to carry you on my shoulders."

"Oh. That's no fun, but it'll work." She sounded disappointed.

I decide not to question her. Hoisting her up onto my shoulders we took off. I could still move faster on foot with Rika in tow than she likely could on her own, so it ended up working out in the end. The estate was far enough away that we could likely make it before the mob despite the rain. The walk was pretty long, but since there wasn't any sight of the Okinomiya citizens anywhere we figured we were far enough ahead of them that they wouldn't pose a problem.

Eventually the estate could be seen, roughly two blocks away from our current position. I lowered Rika who had been taking most of the damage from the rain and continued forward with her tagging fairly close behind me.

"That wasn't so bad."

"Easy for you to say… You barely got wet." She complained somewhat jokingly.

"Hey, I woke up on the side of a road. I've been getting rained on since last night."

"Speaking of…What happened?"

"…I'd rather –"

"You're going to tell me. Otherwise you'll have to tell Mion. And I'm _sure_ you don't want to have to tell her."

"She's gonna make me tell her anyway…"

"Then why hide it from me? I'm going to find out anyhow."

"You've got a good point there…I was chased."

"By who?" For some odd reason Rika didn't appear surprised in the slightest.

"Some guys wearing these white jumpsuits. They looked fairly threatening, so I sort of ran from them. And then…"

"And then… what?"

I decided to leave out the part where I killed them. Choosing to dwell on that memory again, it suddenly occurred to me that the only injuries of note that Rika had mentioned were those of Takano and Tomitake.

"And then I sort of just passed out and woke up in Okinomiya. In the middle of the rain."

"You don't remember anything else?"

"No…I don't know if I somehow got myself dropped off there, or if someone moved me there themselves…But Rika, were there only two incidents here in the village?"

"What makes you think there would be more?" She gave me a _very_ curious look, followed by a 'I know you're hiding something' look.

"No reason…Or is the monster only killing people from Okinomiya?"

"You mean the demon, right?" Rika's face fell. "…I don't know any more about it than you do. I'm sorry."

I was about to object to that statement, but only because I knew things I wasn't supposed to know. According to Takano on the night of the festival, the demon belonged to the Furude clan. But here Rika was, apparently not knowing a thing about it. There was something up here… But more importantly, there was what Shion said. About how there was something at work in this village that clearly wasn't supposed to be here. If Rika didn't know the details about the demon, even if it theoretically belonged to her, then maybe whatever 'wasn't supposed to be here' had something to do with the demon. But of course I didn't have the answers.

Then there were my assailants. If their bodies had been discovered then certainly Rika would have known about them. But she made no mention of the five men. I still wasn't even remotely sure what to make of that. Had I hallucinated it all? But that was impossible. It was far too real to have been a hallucination. Maybe someone had picked them up at some point?

I was a bit too alarmed for my own good. I tried my best not to think about them and instead to think about the incident at hand. But it was still all so intertwined I just couldn't manage it all. At this point Shion was the only one who knew anything about what was going on, and she had pretty much vanished on me. I wanted answers from her, but apparently Mion wanted me to stay away from her. I didn't know what to make of any of this. And I doubted I ever would.

We continued along the path to the estate while I was still in deep though. There was a significant lack of people more or less everywhere – there wasn't a single person out on the streets. It was likely because of the rain, but even then there would naturally be some people out and about, considering how it was likely no one around here knew about the mob yet. It was all incredibly eerie – the rain drowned out the sound of the cicadas, which had been the only other sound present aside from our own footsteps. The village was silent. Too silent.

Eventually we were only a block away, when suddenly a voice I'd never heard before rang out off to the side.

"I wouldn't go that way if I were you, kid."

I turned to the left to find someone sitting on a lone bench by the street corner. He was garbed in a dark coat and wore a similarly colored hat. He had his gloved hands in his pockets and seemed to be doing nothing more than staring up at the sky despite the rain. Rika and I never would have noticed him unless he had spoken as he just did. I glanced at Rika who was a lot more concerned with the sudden appearance of this man than I was. Maybe she had some fear for strangers. I doubted that severely, but hey, who could know?

"And why do you say that?" Rika spoke while I was still studying the man.

The man let out a light amused grunt. "Because all the action's going to happen there. Why else?"

"What kind of action?" I decided to jump in on the conversation.

"What the hell do you think, kid? 'What kind of action,' he wants to know…Shit, I feel dumber just listening to you." For some reason the man suddenly decided it would be prudent to insult me. How about that? I now don't like this guy one bit.

"Please don't talk to Keiichi like that." Rika apparently came to my defense.

The man turned his head in our direction. I caught a glimpse of his eyes – they were far too yellow to be natural. Staring at them I felt like I was staring at the moon. That isn't even all that metaphorical – his eyes had a very unnatural glow to them…I couldn't place it.

"Hm… That's right, you're Keiichi, aren't you? Almost forgot what you looked like..." Suddenly he grinned. "And you look like shit, Bernkastel. And I thought cats hate water?"

"…Wait, is he talking to _you_, Rika?"

"I-I guess so…I haven't the slightest idea why, but I think so." Rika averted her eyes before sending the man a very quick glare. "You're probably mistaking me for someone else." She announces. I probably wasn't supposed to notice any of that. I put it out of my mind. Maybe this man _did _know someone else who had an obsession with cats. As unlikely as that seemed.

The man chuckled slightly. "Ah…I love screwing around with you kids… But really, though, you're going the wrong way. Especially if you want to get out of here alive."

"You're saying if we go to the estate we're both going to die?" I decided to take control of the questioning from here.

"No shit…Look, those guys from Okinomiya? They've got a leader. A leader that even someone like me would get chills from looking at. I wouldn't want to go toe to toe with someone like that if I were you guys."

"Then we'll go there, get our friends out, and leave. Isn't that a good enough solution?" Rika retorted. She seemed to be getting more and more agitated by this man by the second.

The man sighed and shook his head. "You've gotta know this shit by now…What's your name supposed to be? Rika? Right. Anyway, you've got to understand how things work by now. Someone's gotta die. That's just the way the world works."

"Well I don't agree. At all." Rika talked back with a bit more anger in her voice.

And the longer this conversation became, the more I came to believe that I was in the wrong place at the absolute _worst _time. There was something amiss here. Something about Rika standing next to me and the man across from me that I just couldn't quite understand. They seemed to be locked in some confrontation that I couldn't even begin to comprehend. And the more I tried to think about it the stranger the situation became. I decided it was not in my place to interrupt them – I just had a feeling. And this feeling – I couldn't place it. Was it intimidation? Or was it something more like fear? Fear of something I couldn't understand?

"You can think whatever you want to." He then waved his arm. "Go ahead. Go and get yourselves killed, for all I care. But once you cross over, you can't run from the darkness."

For some reason he seemed to stare off into the distance behind us, ignoring us entirely. A few seconds later he let out a low laugh for seemingly no reason.

In that moment the wind picked up, spraying us with rain. I shielded my face with my arms reflexively to counter it. Once the wind subsided and I wiped the water out of my eyes, I looked back up at the man – only to find that he had disappeared altogether, as if he had never been there in the first place.

"What was…?"

"Don't think about it." Rika grabbed my hand and squeezed it. "We need to get going."

I looked at her for some sign of confusion or awe or anything that suggested she was taken aback by the entire experience. I saw absolutely nothing in her gaze. Nothing but what I thought could have been sadness.

With that, we ran off towards the estate, hopefully having enough time to both find Mion and Satoko and escape whatever darkness the strange man had spoken of.

But despite how confident I seemed to be, deep down I knew. Deep down I knew that no matter what I could do, things would still go horribly wrong. All I could do was pray – pray that I could somehow manage to save Mion and the others. At this stage of the game, that was all I could do and all I cared about.

But I could feel it, especially from that conversation only moments ago. It only confirmed that which Shion had said before.

There was something amiss. There was something wrong in Hinamizawa. Something that should not have been here. Something that would do everything in its power to ensure that every last one of us perished.

And ultimately I knew it was going to succeed.


	4. Nebulous Dream Chapter, Episode 3

_**Nebulous Dream Chapter, Episode 3**_

_9 Days Remain (June 21st__, 1983)  
__Maebara Keiichi_

It had taken a bit longer than intended, but we had arrived at the estate. The grounds were completely void of people, just as the rest of the village seemed to be. There was certainly something very wrong here. Unless the entire village had somehow managed to catch wind of the mob's advancement this shouldn't have been the case. There was something certainly wrong here- I could only hope I'd actually find someone before it was too late.

We tried going in through one of the main buildings, but the doors were locked and wouldn't budge. Rika even tried knocking several times to no avail. Eventually we decided that the best course of action was to basically break in. Fortunately we didn't have to resort to the breaking in part, as once we searched the area for a bit we found a door that just so happened to be unlocked.

I slid open the door with no difficulty to find an almost pitch black room on the other side. There wasn't a single light on in the house, which led me to believe that this place was pretty much abandoned as well.

Of course the moment I managed to step inside, a man wearing sunglasses suddenly appeared about two feet away, holding a shotgun aimed right between my eyes. Needless to say this was _not_ the way I needed to start my day.

"Don't move." His low voice boomed. It had only taken about a second for me to be scared shitless of this man.

"L-Look, I'm just a friend of Mion's. I'm not here to –"

"Don't move. And stop talking."

This wasn't getting anywhere. At this point I was almost sure this man was going to shoot me no matter what I did

Eventually Rika made it over to where we were and upon her entry, she lightly bowed. "It's good to see you again, Kasai-san."

He glanced at Rika and then back at me. After a few seconds of deliberation, the man apparently named Kasai lowered the gun.

"…Yeah, I'm with her."

Kasai shrugged his shoulders. "You can't expect me to know that off the top of my head, Maebara."

"So you _do _know who I am. Then what the hell's with the attitude?" I yelled at him, trying to regain my composure to the best of my ability.

"Watch your mouth…Look, you're probably already aware of what's going on around here. My job is to keep outsiders off the grounds. You could be with them for all I know. You're actually pretty damn lucky you came along with her, though. I probably would've shot you."

"That's what I was afraid of…But I get your point." I sighed. "So does the whole village know about the mob?"

"What mob? They're sending in a mob now? And I thought they'd get the message after I sent their punk of a leader back with a broken arm…"

"Wait, so this _wasn't _about the mob?"

"I didn't know anything about a mob until just now."

"There's a whole group of them. They're heading this way." Rika interrupted. "We got here ahead of them, luckily enough, because Keiichi-kun has a better memory of the streets than I do."

"Huh…I suppose I'd ought to thank you. Without Rika-chan our plan falls apart."

Damn straight he'd ought to. "But why were the villagers in hiding? And what does Rika-chan have to do with any of this?"

"They sent a smaller group here ahead of them. Let's just say they weren't the nicest bunch. I might have beaten up their leader. A bit. Or a lot. Afterward the pack of them left. And it seems they're coming back with some reinforcements."

I occurred to me what the strange man in the black hat had said earlier. Their leader was apparently particularly fearsome. If Kasai had beaten him up without much issue, then we might have had a chance here after all. But I was more concerned over how letting them go allowed the rest of the group to rally together and strike back. "Wait, so you let them go?"

"Of course. We couldn't just hold them here. That would be a bit illegal, wouldn't you think?"

He certainly had a point. If the group never came back the rest of the mob would probably have just assumed they were dead or something and have gotten the authorities involved. I nodded my head in agreement. I really didn't like this whole situation as it was, but there was very little I could do about it.

"It only took about ten minutes for everyone to get off the streets. The rest of that family is lying in wait for something to happen. As for Rika-chan…"

"I'll tell him myself." Rika pulled me over to the side. "It's like this. If anything were to happen to me, then…Well, regardless of what would actually happen the villagers would start going crazy. They'd probably start killing people left and right."

"_Why_?"

"You already know about the curse. So you can probably guess that the people in the village already think that the curse is underway. And if I were to die… Well, the whole village would probably erupt into chaos. It has to do with my family's history."

I nodded my head in understanding. Perhaps that was part of the reason why Mion had wanted me to protect Rika. Because if anything were to happen to her, then there would most definitely be no hope left for the village.

It suddenly hit me as I thought about her.

"Wait, but where's Mion? And Satoko?"

"They're both fine." Kasai reassured me. "We smuggled them off the grounds. They're hiding up by the shrine. Rika-chan, I'm going to assume your house can hold four people."

Rika nodded her head. "It won't be a problem."

"Why send them to the shrine?"

"Because it's the safest place. Okinomiya may have a grudge against the family, but they _do_ still have to honor the traditions of the village. More importantly, keeping Mion alive ensures the family won't need to worry about getting back on its feet later on."

"Wait, but why the Sonozaki family? Wasn't the killer just supposed to have been from the village?"

"Yeah, that's the case. But the victims – they were all from a particular Sonozaki-run establishment. It's a copycat of a serial murder case that went on some time ago. The family barely scraped itself out of that one, but now that it's happened again? And with almost twice the number of victims? It'll take more money than we have to handle this one."

"So then… What are they going to do?" I hadn't the slightest clue why the family seemed to still be trying. At this point I was willing to believe they were just fighting back out of pure stubbornness. It wouldn't come as a surprise in the slightest.

"Right now, they're just going to wait until Mion is safe. Then we'll come up with something… All I really know is that I'm here to keep anyone from entering the manor. It's as simple as that. You just worry about getting to the shrine on time, alright? We don't need anyone taking shots at the two of you."

It sounded like a plan. There was a reason why they wanted Mion to stay safe – likely because she was the successor to the head of the family. I assumed that as long as they could ensure her safety, there wouldn't be any real issue if they went ahead and did whatever they felt was necessary. I had a feeling that there would be death involved, but ultimately it wasn't my place to decide what they did with themselves. I just hoped they wouldn't all turn up dead in one fell swoop.

"Keiichi…We should probably get going." Rika tugged on my sleeve.

I nodded, facing Kasai once more. "Right. We'll be going."

"Good thing, too. The mob will be here in another ten minutes. Best get a head start."

"…But one last thing."

"Hm?"

"Where's Shion?"

"…I'm not entirely sure. She was supposed to have gone off to work… But she broke a promise to call Mion the minute she got to work… You get the idea, right?"

"So do you think… She went missing?"

"She's not missing, she's…" Rika trailed off, trying to break our sudden eye contact.

"…Where is she?"

"I'm… I'm not saying I know where she is, but really, she's probably…" Rika's face fell as I realized what she was getting at. Given everything that was happening, there wasn't a very good chance that Shion was running late or something.

"Let's not jump to conclusions." Kasai had apparently already considered that possibility. "Regardless of what she's up to, you two need to get a move on. Even if the worst happened she wouldn't want the two of you moping around like this."

He had a point. We both decided at that moment that we would focus more on getting out of this situation alive, rather than what was completely out of our hands. We needed to find Mion and Satoko. I had to protect them both.

With a rather lazy wave, Kasai turned away from us and appeared to load his shotgun. That thing wasn't even loaded? I was freaking out over _nothing_?

"Keiichi…" Rika's voice suggested she'd noticed the exact same thing I noticed.

"Shut up…" I muttered before we headed off down the road to the shrine.

As we made our way down the road, something suddenly came to mind.

"Come to think of it, wouldn't you and Satoko have left for the estate at the same time?"

"Well, we did… But I actually went to the clinic first."

"For what?"

"I…I went to visit Rena. I told her about our whole plan. Just so… you know, right?"

I had a good enough idea about what she was getting at. Rena would doubtlessly want to know what we were doing and where we were going. So she could spend less time worrying about the lot of us and spend more time recovering.

In that moment I picked up my pace, dragging Rika along by the hand.

No matter how dire the situation became, no matter how impossible to deal with things would get, I couldn't give up. Even if whatever was trying to tear the village apart succeeded, I still could give in. Solely because there were people like Rena who were at stake here.

In the end, my resolve had finally hardened. And so I was prepared to face whatever happened next.

* * *

_At the Furude Shrine _

The shrine was completely void of all life. The cicadas could no longer be heard, and in its place was the howl of the wind. It was all too ominous. There was something here that set me off. Something very unnatural lurked the shrine grounds, and in the end I had a feeling that we were no safer here than we would be standing right in front of that mob. But that didn't change anything.

I had to protect Mion, Satoko, and now Rika. I had to defend all three of them. That was my job at this point. And no matter what came my way I had to do it, or at least die trying. Of course I still lacked the resolve when it came to staring death right in the face, but as long as it didn't come to that, things would work out.

We quickly made our way to Rika's small house, which apparently was having additions built onto it. Luckily the house was still suitable despite the rain. Otherwise we might not have had a truly safe place to hide.

"We're a bit lucky we could hide out here." Rika spoke as if reading my mind. "If we were doing this three days from now, we'd have to hide in Satoko's house. We were going to replace the roof next."

"Yeah… But that isn't the case. Now let's get inside." I ended that conversation as quickly as I could. Rika must have been born cold blooded – she didn't seem to mind the rain all that much at all.

I quickly got myself inside with Rika tailing behind me. The door was fortunately unlocked. Although that seemed a bit out of place, all things considered…

Upon entering the house, I pretty much instantly tripped and landed face first on the floor. I hadn't slipped because of my wet shoes – I'd stepped on something that caused me to lose my footing. It was likely a trap placed by Satoko.

"Hey, Keiichi's here!" I heard a distant voice, likely from the second floor. I sort of understood her plan. Only someone as inept as I was could possibly fall for such a poorly placed trap like that one. There you go – I insulted myself. But it's true. I might've…done the…same thing if I were in her position. As _painful_ as it is for me to admit.

Rika walked past me and straight into the arms of a very concerned Satoko, who had just made it down the stairs. I stood up and brushed myself off, ignoring Satoko's stupid grin.

"Good plan… I would've gone with a less painful one, but it wasn't half bad," I complimented her in a low voice without making any sort of eye contact whatsoever, instead choosing to take in my surroundings. The hallway was uniform in design – there was a guest room on each side, and a staircase leading to the second floor on each side as well. The kitchen was on the far end of the hallway and –

"Hey, look at me when you compliment my handiwork!" Satoko complained.

"Hm? What? Compliment you? Me? When?"

"Just now!"

"Sorry, I don't remember doing anything of the sort."

"You…You compliment me _right now_!"

Continuing to play dumb, I head past Satoko and straight up the stairs while Rika attempts to calm her down. I had better things to do than mess around with her, as fun as it might have been on occasion. The second floor hallway was identical to the first, except for its lack of a kitchen. As I had expected, Mion was on this floor, staring out at the dreary afternoon through the large window on the far end. I walked over to her, without saying much of anything.

"I thought I'd made my entrance loud enough for you to hear."

"Oh, I know you're here. Satoko was being loud… I was actually trying to sleep."

"I'd figure…You've probably lost a lot of sleep this week."

Mion let out a very small, dejected laugh. "Lose sleep? Me? On what? On you when you went missing? On the festival? On all of this Okinomiya crap? Not a chance…"

"…Shion told me things."

"I bet she did. She's been doing all sorts of things. I don't even know where she is right now, and she needs me now more than ever…" With a light grunt, Mion punched the wall with a good deal of strength.

"She told me you've been doing quite a bit _more_. I'm beginning to believe her."

"I'm not the one you should be worrying about."

"Like hell. You knew about the first killing in Okinomiya _long_ before we read that article together. Oishi came by that morning and talked to you about it. He thought the family was in on it. So you wanted to do something about it. But you're so damn _stupid_ that you figured you'd throw yourself into harm's way so no one else had to deal with any of it. Am I right?"

"…Did Shion tell you all that?"

"No. You did poor job of hiding it." Also, I had Kasai fill me in on the details. But she didn't need to know that. "You felt responsible because of what happened last year, right?"

"That has nothing to do with –"

"It has_ everything _to do with it. Something happened last year, and you felt the need to take responsibility for everything this year because of whatever you failed to do last year."

Mion didn't have any immediate reaction – it seemed I'd hit the nail on the head. And to think I once thought having a mom obsessed with mystery was a bad thing.

"…And look what good it all did. Pretty much all of Okinomiya wants the family dead, they're probably gonna burn the manor down before the day is over… I never wanted any of this to happen."

"You shouldn't have hidden it from everyone."

"You expected me to tell the whole family? What do you think would've happened? Things would've gotten worse instantly. The village would've gone crazy if they thought the killing had to do with the family. I wasn't going to risk that."

"But isn't that what happened anyway?"

"It got out of my hands. I took too long. That's all… I've been hiding way too much from you. If I came out about it, I would've run all kinds of risks… I know there was only so much I could do on my own… But it's all because I had to protect everyone. Don't you get it?"

I was beginning to see Mion's perspective. It was still a very stupid move, but she did have some method behind it. I wasn't fully aware of the things that went on in the village, but Mion clearly was. If she felt the village was threatened, she would've naturally tried to keep a lid on things. But she could have still talked to us about it.

I took a few steps closer to her. It was only from this distance that I noticed her shoulders were trembling. "…It didn't take long though… I figured out it wasn't going to amount to anything. I did some digging, and it all came back to that demon. I don't think I could handle a demon even if I tried, but I kept on going… You know where this is going, right?"

Something was very familiar about this.

"So I figured, if I couldn't protect my family, and if I couldn't protect the village, then I could at least try to save my friends. Because I knew you'd never change, and that you'd always support me, no matter what happened… And then Rena was attacked and you were hurt, and there was nothing I could do about it. So I tried to keep things intact for the festival, and when you went missing I thought you'd turn up dead and I…"

I wrapped my arms around Mion, pulling her as close as possible. Mion's boisterous leader façade fell apart entirely as she more or less broke down sobbing in that moment.

"Twice – twice now I've had to give up my shirt to a depressed girl. Might as well make it a hat trick. Is Satoko afraid of spiders or something?"

Mion made a rather weak noise that was apparently indicative of a very light laugh. Completely uncharacteristic, but completely understandable.

Mion was definitely stronger than this. But at this point all of that strength had more or less dried up – right now, she was completely defenseless. This might have been why Shion was so insistent on having me protect her. Because she anticipated something like this. It was very likely – they were sisters, after all.

"You didn't have to. But you did. That was more than anyone could've asked of you. You understand?"

Mion nodded before attempting to speak.

"Even so, I shouldn't… I shouldn't give up so easily… Look at me right now, for example."

"You can break down as many times as you need to. My shirt may disagree, but I'm all ears."

"I wouldn't do this around anyone else anyway…" She ended up blowing her nose on my shirt. She was definitely pushing this whole 'caring embrace' thing way over the edge.

"…Kei-chan." She said with a sudden firmness in her voice.

"Yeah?"

But she didn't say anything. Instead, she did the logical thing that any teenage girl would do in her situation. That is to say she suddenly kissed me on the lips with the force of a freight train, causing me to almost lose my footing once again, which ended up with me leaning forward, pushing her slightly back against the wall and deepening the kiss by some force of nature I had no control over.

But unfortunately, for lack of mental resolve on either of our parts to go any further with that, Mion broke away while I was still in a daze and immediately hung her head and turned away about forty degrees.

I was still staring off into space, not daring to look anywhere near her. I could imagine that her face was probably just as much of a mess as mine was right about now. Before either of us could say anything past that point, Mion took off down the hallway, leaving me to my currently incoherent jumble of thoughts.

Suddenly, she called out to me. "…I swear… If you say one word to anyone… I'll kill you, got it?"

"…Uh-huh…"

Without another word, Mion went straight down the stairs. I was wondering if she even heard me.

I sighed. What just happened?

I kept trying to register two seemingly impossible things at the same time. One, Mion had kissed me. Not only that, but several seconds later she ran off in embarrassment before threatening to kill me if I ever told anyone about it.

My mind was effectively blown.

But there was at least one conclusion I came to without much deliberation.

No one could die tonight. We had to survive. I had to make sure no one was killed. I would protect them myself if I had to.

Eventually I recovered from the initial shock and decided to head downstairs. I hadn't taken into account that we'd be having dinner that evening, although it would've been the most typical thing to assume. I managed to inhale my food without exchanging _too_ many glances with Mion, so there was something I accomplished right there.

Later that evening – long after Rika clued into my sudden distance from Mion and interrogated us about it – we all ended up having tea in the kitchen, which Rika prepared. I ended up not drinking any of it, nor did Mion or Satoko. Tea might've been appropriate for a day when we weren't all dead tired from being drenched by the rain all day. Satoko felt bad that Rika had already brewed enough for all four of us, so she decided that she'd drink it later that evening and held onto it.

Rika drank hers as we all deliberated over what our next move was going to be. I could actually look at Mion again, so there wasn't any needless awkwardness going on as we did. We were safe from the Okinomiya mob for the time being as Kasai had mentioned, but there was still the matter of the supposed demon that was on the loose. Furthermore, I was still concerned about the men dressed in the public service uniforms, although when I brought them up Rika seemed uncannily sure that they weren't going to pose any sort of a threat. In the end, we decided that Satoko and Rika would end up sleeping on the first floor, while Mion would take the main bedroom and I would grab the guest room with the balcony.

"Is there any specific reason for the arrangement?" I asked Rika, who went over the plan in between sips of tea.

"All the doors are rigged with my alarm traps. So if someone gets into the house and tries to open a door, we'd all know about it. That way, Rika can escape as quickly as possible." Satoko answered instead.

"Don't forget that _you_ need to escape too if it comes to that." Rika said towards Mion.

"Don't worry about me." She tried to reassure her. "I'll be fine. You just worry about yourself."

"Alright then… I guess we should all get some sleep. If something _does_ happen by the morning, we'll probably need to get moving. And fast, preferably." I more or less announced that I was going to turn in. There was a unanimous agreement to what I had said – we all headed off to sleep, Satoko bringing her cup of tea with her.

"It'll be cold, you know." Rika mentioned.

"I said I'll drink it. So I'll drink it."

"…You know what? I think I'll have some too." Mion went over to the tea pot and poured herself the remainder of the tea, her guilt apparently having caught up with her. "Can't let this go to waste."

While Rika tried to convince the two not to bother with the tea, I decided it would be best to head upstairs. Without so much as a word to anyone else, I went into my room and shut the door, proceeding to lock it. Now that the door was closed, anyone who touched the knob would set off the alarm. Locking it was a bit unnecessary, but I still felt the need to. While I was at it, I locked my windows as well. I knew I said I would protect the others – so I had to ensure that I wasn't the one who would be attacked first. I figured the others would be locking their doors anyhow.

I decided to lie down on the bed, not really intending on getting anywhere near as much sleep as I definitely needed. I shut my eyes anyhow, shutting off the lights and treating things normally. I hoped the plan would work. But most importantly, I hoped that no one would turn up dead in the morning. I almost decided to force myself to stay awake, but then I figured that the others would likely be upset with me if I went and did something like that.

I sighed and shut my eyes, slowly drifting off to sleep…

* * *

_8 Days Remain (June 22__nd__, 1983)_

It wasn't all that far past five in the morning. I had woken up simply because it was a bit hard to sleep in a bed I wasn't all that used to. I'd really only feel at home in the clinic, ironically enough, given how I'd spent eleven days there. I ended up tossing and turning through most of the evening anyhow. I was, simply enough, to concerned to sleep. The others weren't particularly aware of the men in the uniforms, even though I had already told Rika about them. Come to think of it… She hadn't made any mention of them whatsoever. It seemed odd, now that I thought about it.

But suddenly my thoughts were interrupted – a loud, high pitched scream pierced the otherwise silent house, followed by a loud roar of some sort. A few seconds later, while I'm still trying to figure out if the sound was real or not, I hear one of the alarms go off.

I bolted up, getting out of the bed and rushing towards the door with as much speed as I could muster. Throwing the door open and setting off the alarm, I glanced both ways down the hallway –

Mion's door was open. Her door was open – unlocked. My eyes widened with fear and I immediately ran across the hallway and into the room.

Something wasn't right here. The scene before me – it was too strange. There was something wrong here.

Standing in the room was an equally as shocked Rika. The nearby window was completely open. The room itself was perfectly normal. Nothing was turned over or tossed around or anything of the sort. There was no sign of struggle whatsoever.

But by Rika's feet were shards of glass – glass from one of the tea cups.

And on the floor, breathless and cold, was Satoko.

But – wasn't this Mion's room?

"Rika – what happened?"

She turned to me, her face plastered with a look of pure shock. I figured that by this point my face didn't look all that different.

"I made them change rooms, so Mii-chan would be safe… Satoko…We had a signal… I'd knock on the door a few times… She'd wake up and open the door. But she…She was going to, but she said she'd drink something first. Then she screamed, and… I didn't think that…"

Swallowing whatever fear I had, I walked over to the fallen girl and examined her body. I wasn't sure what spurred me to do it. But when I checked her, I noticed that there was no clear wound. So I figured that there was only one clear killer here – poison. Considering how Satoko had gotten a drink moments before she screamed, it had to be the case.

...Poison?

…Was this even real?

…Was I still dreaming?

Eventually I heard another alarm go off - Mion wandered into the room shortly after before joining us in our state of shock. She pulled Rika, who apparently had lost her composure, into an embrace as I continued to stare at the scene before me.

I heard a roar. What on earth was –?

The demon. It had to be. The demon must have done this to her.

"…Who?" Mion asked without a hint of her emotions in her voice.

"The tea… I brewed the tea… There wasn't anything in the tea…"

"Someone poisoned the tea…" I spoke, barely above a whisper.

"Kei-chan… You didn't have any, did you? I did, but I'm fine… But…" Mion trailed off, apparently having come to the same conclusion as I had.

I was beginning to put things together. The alarm did not go off until Rika entered the room, so chances were that the person who poisoned Satoko's tea had known about the entire plan, thus knowing to enter her room without making use of the door. Out of the three of us, Rika was the one who had given Satoko the tea. As far as Mion is concerned, she falls into the same category as I do. She knew not to make use of the door and to get into the room via the open window. But so did I… All three of us were equally suspicious.

I sighed. "…So. This is the part where we eat each other alive over who killed Satoko? Maple Street style?"

Silence.

"N-No." Mion's shaky voice rung out. "…I trust you both. And I know you both trust me… I don't know who could've done this, unless it was…"

More silence.

"But who else knew? No one, right?" Rika whispered.

"…No one. No one who would kill Satoko." Mion concurred.

…We all came to the same conclusion simultaneously.

"…Then it must have been the demon. There's no other choice."

We all fell silent.

"But… Is there really a demon?" Mion apparently knew nothing either…?

That didn't make sense.

"Wait a second here." I interrupt them. "The demon… It's supposed to be…"

"…Supposed to be mine, right?" Rika murmured.

"So you _did_ know?"

She nodded her head. "I know nothing of how to summon it. So I didn't do it… There's no way I'd want something like this."

I chose to believe her. Nothing implicated Rika of anything regarding the demon so far. Furthermore, Tomitake and Takano were injured and dead respectively, so there was little debate over their involvement. Then something else occurred to me – there was more than one demon that the pair had mentioned. There were, in fact, three demons. "But Mion… Doesn't your family have one too?"

"Yeah, but… You can't just go summoning it. It's complicated."

I decided that deliberation over the demons at this point wouldn't amount to anything. If Rika truly didn't know how to summon the demon, and if Mion's demon couldn't even _be_ summoned, then the Kimiyoshi demon would be the only one left to search for. But Takano and Tomitake both were certain it was Rika's… So then there was something else going on here that I didn't know anything about.

Something else occurred to me in that instant. If the demon were the killer, then why was Satoko poisoned, as opposed to the more violent deaths the other victims received?

There were too many questions. Too many questions that I couldn't answer.

"…So, where do we go now?" I decided to change the topic of discussion to something far more relevant.

"Don't we need to bury her?" Rika brought up a strong point.

"…We can't. We don't have the time. We can be attacked again at any moment… I don't want to leave her like that, but we don't have a choice. We need to head back to the manor. Kasai will know what to do." Mion was clearly hesitant to tell Rika that, even though it was perfectly logical.

Rika eventually nodded her head, waving her hand across Satoko's opened eyes, closing them. She stood up. "Let's go, then."

Without any further deliberation, we went straight for the Sonozaki estate. Our plan at this point was to fall back to the estate and hopefully enlist the rest of the family before it became too late to do anything about our current situation. Once we regrouped we could possibly find another way out of the village, maybe even one Mion might not have known about. At that point, ensuring Rika's safety was going to be our top priority.

But there was still the concern about the mob – there was no telling what might have gone on while we were away. Mion and the others didn't want to accept it, but I was already sold on the idea. If a man as brave as Kasai had his concerns, there wasn't any chance that things were going to end peacefully. I could only hope the damage wasn't too severe.

The rain had completely stopped at this point, making traveling that much easier. Of course the entire process was going to be far more complicated now, given that we were avoiding open streets and diving in and out of alleyways so we weren't very noticeable. There was no telling when we could be attacked – I doubted our measures were going to do any good anyway. The odds certainly weren't in our favor as far as outsmarting a thousand year old demon was concerned.

Eventually, we closed in on the estate. It was only a block or two away, and as soon as we made it we'd be home free. At this point, with not even the shrine being safe, the estate was the last place in the village we had to run to. But the longer we ran, the more I came to think – what if there _wasn't_ another way out of the village? What if we had blown all of our options? Okinomiya wasn't even remotely safe anyway – the demon was perfectly capable of killing in that town as well. It all just seemed so hopeless.

But perhaps they would know what to do. Perhaps Kasai and the others could formulate an attack plan. I held on to that possibility for as long as I could.

Of course the moment the smoldering remains of the Sonozaki estate came fully into view, whatever collective hope we all had shattered into a million pieces. We stared upon the carnage before us – the buildings were completely burned to the ground. The charred remains of trees littered the soot coated grass. Amongst the chaos were bodies – at least seven bodies, all Sonozakis, all of which were equally as burned beyond recognition as their home around them.

Rika let out a gasp, while Satoko remained completely silent. Mion, on the other hand, didn't do much of anything – her face was frozen in what I believed to be the most agonizing look I've ever seen in my life. Her mouth hung open as if she were going to scream, but she didn't make a sound. I considered reaching out to her in another one of her rare moments of weakness, but the moment I was going to –

A loud cry – a collection of cries. From within the charred ruins came the mob, charging forward towards us. And above them, standing atop a remnant of the manor's frame was the demon – the blood red eyes, the beastlike arm twice the size of the other – it was the demon, and there was no doubt about it.

In that moment realized that this was the end of our line. We'd effectively come to a dead end, and at this point, even if we _did_ somehow manage to avoid the demon, the mob would tear us to pieces just as easily – our death was finite either way. All three of us understood this, hence why not a single one of us made any move whatsoever.

Of course, at that moment, in the most desperate of desperate hours, the majestic black car of justice that almost hit me going sixty miles an hour arrived on the scene, coming to an abrupt stop between the three of us and the mob. Considering how the car seemed to deliberately be heading in my direction I assumed the driver was Kasai – no one else in the _world _would pull an asshole move in a life or death situation on purpose. The back door swung open and, without so much as a word, the three of us dashed towards it, with Satoko dragging a still dazed Mion by the arm.

We rammed ourselves into the back seats with as much force as possible. I was crushed against the opposite door, but I swallowed whatever comment I would've normally had as my eyes glued themselves to the still menacing – yet still completely motionless – demon. It seemed to be watching the mob, eyeing the mass of people carefully. I hadn't the slightest idea as to why.

The mob made its way towards the car. But from the front seat, Kasai took aim at them with that shotgun of his and had no qualms with firing it. The shot took out one of the rioters, while two more fell victim to the sub-machine gun that Kasai had in the front seat with him. He continued to spray bullets out of the window while Mion started shouting at him.

"Why the hell aren't we moving?"

"Give it a second… I might've jammed something."

"How long is it gonna take? We've got about ten seconds before we're all dead!"

"It'll start moving when it starts moving!" Kasai shouted in an irritated tone. "Besides, I can keep this up all day!" He continued spraying the mob without so much as a second thought before running out of bullets, dropping the machine gun, and lifting _another _from the front seat, all while apparently hammering his foot down on the accelerator. Kasai certainly was a man who loved his firearms. It's unfortunate that _this_ was the way I found out.

But then, as the crowd seemed to scatter, I saw him. A man standing towards the back of the crowd, surrounded by the destruction that I came to believe that he caused. A man dressed in what appeared to be a white lab coat, standing almost directly under the demon with his arms folded, studying the mob in a similar way. He certainly wasn't Irie, not by any stretch of the mind. He showed no fear or even surprise at the sudden outburst of combat.

Another good look at this man told me that he was actually a kid, probably no older than I was. Yet he could stand there, perfectly calm and collected, and watch people, many of which he probably knew, die right before his eyes. There was no fear – no fear of being shot, no fear for those being shot, no fear of that thing that was looming just overhead.

And suddenly, our eyes met. His eyes were yellow as the moon, and now that I noticed, his hair was completely black…Sounds familiar, doesn't it? But there was no way those two were the same people – this guy's about twenty years younger.

He stared _into_ me. I felt as if there was nothing I could hide from his eyes. At that moment I knew – he was their leader. He was the leader of the mob. He was the man I was told to fear. And even from behind the glass of the car window, I knew just how threatening he was. It was as if he were telling me _you have no chance, you have no hope, you will die _without so much as opening his mouth.

But eventually our eye contact was broken as the car took off down the road, the mob attempting to no avail to trail behind us. I sighed with relief, but I knew there was still little chance we would escape the demon. But all things considered, it seemed that we had at least escaped the mob for the time being.

"Don't get too comfy, Maebara." Kasai called out. I glanced to my side and both Rika and Mion were staring out of the rear window. I joined them, only to find another black car, this one clearly larger and much more likely to crush like a can, chasing _us_ at sixty miles an hour.

"When the hell did they get a car like that?"

"When do you think? It's not like they all took the bus to get here." Kasai raised a good point.

"You can get us out of this, right?" Mion apparently wanted some sort of reassurance before she let herself go along with things. It's not like she had any other options. Unless she'd try something as suicidal as jumping out of the car.

"Don't worry." Kasai said with a tone of voice that wasn't even the slightest bit reassuring. But as he did so, he suddenly hammered the gas pedal, sending us flying down the road at around eighty – and straight towards the woods.

But at the last moment, Kasai made an incredibly sharp turn – practically a ninety degree turn – and sped down another road while our pursuers, caught off guard by the sudden turn, went speeding off the road and into the trees. I was thrown from my seat while Rika landed in the front seat. Mion, on the other hand, had apparently been buckled in the entire time. Seat belt ignorance aside, we were relatively safe in the aftermath. I sighed with relief once again, this time not eliciting anything from Kasai. We continued onward, never really slowing down.

Eventually, however, Kasai decided he had made it far enough away that he could bring the car to a stop.

"Kasai…What happened?" Mion finally managed to talk about the matter at hand.

Kasai sighed himself this time. "They got us all. It all happened before I could do anything extensive."

"But weren't you in the manor the whole time?" I jumped on the interrogation train.

"The thing is, no one got past me. There wasn't a single person who came anywhere near the estate after the two of you showed up."

"So then…" Mion whispered.

"Right. The fire started from inside. The manor didn't catch fire until well after everything else had been destroyed… I had no idea until it was far too late."

"But what about the phones? Shouldn't someone have tried to call you?" I asked him.

"The lines were cut."

"But how could _no one _have made it out?" Mion shouted at him.

"I seriously doubt the fire was started to kill them all, but likely to kill off any survivors."

We all fell silent. The estate apparently had a series of landline phones, even though it wasn't that particularly big. But through using them, one could contact the manor from essentially any room of any building. But the lines had been severed by whoever was responsible for setting fire to the estate. And Okinomiya hadn't been responsible – at this point, only a Sonozaki could have been responsible for it all. Only a Sonozaki… But then again, I suppose there could have been one other culprit.

But the more I thought about these killings, the less I began to believe what I had seen with my own eyes. These killings weren't demon killings. These were human killings, as over blown as they were. But despite that, the demon clearly stood above the wreckage only a few minutes earlier. I didn't understand. And when it came down to it, I _couldn't _understand. I just had to accept that the entire family had been slaughtered.

"…Cut?" Mion almost gasped.

"It was completely premeditated. There was quite a bit of preparation that went into it, but no one seemed to notice. So no one suspicious was ever spotted on the grounds… I can't tell you any more than that."

Mion fell silent.

"…Are you sure there weren't any survivors?" I asked Kasai.

"…Without a doubt. No one made it out… We still don't know where Shion is, but… Given the circumstances, we have to assume the worst."

Mion shuddered slightly.

I recalled how Mion had placed everything on the line to protect her family. And now, in an event completely out of her control, her family had been claimed and her sister was missing.

I embraced her. She melted into me as she silently shed tears. Mion didn't have much strength left in her… And so I decided I would have to fill it in her place.

"Kei-chan…"

"Mion…" I whispered to her. "You did everything."

"But not enough…"

"You did everything… You've done everything you can, so leave everything else to me."

"…Kei-chan?"

With that, I placed a small kiss on the side of her face. She didn't make as much as a sound after that. It seemed she'd understood completely.

But suddenly, Rika interrupted our thoughts. "Do you hear… A motorcycle?"

I let go of Mion and turned around in my seat – not only did I hear a motorcycle, but I _saw_ one. And it was catching up.

"Kasai…Hit the gas, already!" I shouted. On cue, the car sped forward at blinding speeds, but at that point the motorcycle had gained enough speed it was already side by side with the car. I got a look at the rider –

It was him. The leader of the Okinomiya mob. His lab coat blew in the wind – it was a miracle it didn't catch on the wheels or something. Apparently he'd chosen to forgo the safety helmet that most would wear on a motorcycle and instead brought with him a loaded pistol that he was apparently aiming towards the car.

And alongside him, running down the road at an identical speed, was the demon. Once again, it simply pursued – it did not attack. I swallowed hard. This couldn't end well – no matter how you looked at it.

"Who the hell is this guy, now?" Kasai growled before taking one hand off the wheel and simultaneously making an incredibly sharp turn while lifting a similar pistol from the front seat and taking a shot. The demon and the man both turned with as much precision and the shot Kasai fired apparently missed. Kasai was apparently good enough to shoot with one hand – it didn't surprise me in the slightest.

But apparently the man was as well. He took a shot and barely seemed to feel it. He fired once again while the demon continued to follow at his side.

Rika who was still in the front seat, suddenly gasped. But it wasn't because of the bullet flying over her head. She had taken a glimpse of the man's face.

"…Riku…Furude…?"

"Rika-chan, what did you say?" Mion shouted over the gunfire.

"…I…Forget about it. It's just my imagination…"

At that moment another bullet went flying through the window, passing Kasai but ending up dangerously close to Rika, shattering the window behind her.

In the next moment, another bullet came flying – and seemingly hit her. She arched backward from the pain and slumped over to the side, covering her face with her hands. Immediately, Mion and I pulled her between the two front seats and into the back, checking her over for any sign of injury. She was bleeding, but she was clearly alive. Getting a closer look, it seemed that her left eye had been grazed – the bullet only had dealt any major damage to her temple.

"You okay?" I asked her, panic evident in my voice.

"…It hit the side of my face… I don't think it's still there… I can't see out of my eye, though." She gasped. Apparently she'd been holding her breath the entire time. We both sighed with relief, before Mion slammed her fist into the seat cushion.

"That bastard… Hitting Rika-chan like that…!" Mion was fuming with anger. "…Kasai, hand me something."

"No can do. You three have to stay safe. Besides, I can take this guy just fine."

"He's right, Mion." I placed a hand on her shoulder in hopes that I could calm her down. Apparently it worked, because with another huff Mion reclined in her seat.

The chase continued as Kasai made several more sharp turns that the motorcycle and the demon both handled with ease. Mion continued nursing Rika while I continued staring out the window, unable to do much else. My eyes were still glued to the demon which still had yet to make a move. It just continued racing along, using its massive arm as a third leg and essentially leaping over and over while still managing to keep up with two speeding vehicles. It still amazed me as to how it hadn't done anything yet –

But then it occurred to me. No one else had pointed it out yet. There was no talk of the demon – not once. It was like none of them could see it. But that would be crazy.

Unless it wasn't crazy.

Unless _I _was crazy.

I turned towards the beast once again after glancing at the others for a moment. It was clearly there – but at the same time, it must not have been. Unless they somehow couldn't see it. But that didn't make any sense. There was no way –

Unless the leader of the Okinomiya mob _was_ the demon. Then perhaps things would make sense. Perhaps that would explain how the two of them seemed to work in tandem. Was that really the case? But that wouldn't explain how I was the only one who could apparently see it.

I tried to stop thinking. While thinking things through kept me sane for all this time, now dwelling on things for too long seemed to be more harmful than it needed to be.

But my thoughts were interrupted regardless by the sudden cracking of the window I was staring out of. Looking slightly upward, I noticed the entry hole the bullet had made.

"Shit… Yeah, shoot at my passengers, why don't you! Asshole!" Kasai shouted as he took another shot, this one knocking the pistol from the man's had, causing him to grimace and slow down slightly. We now had a lead over him. Kasai grinned. "That'll teach you…Prick."

With that, Kasai lowered the pistol and placed both hands on the wheel again, this time making a series of sharp turns in an attempt to lose him. But it still didn't work – we were slightly ahead and he had yet to build up his lost speed, but he was still far to adept at this sort of thing for us to fully shake him.

"Where the hell are we going?" Mion shouted.

"Out of the village. Where else? We can't exactly stick around here anymore. The plan is, once this prick stops chasing us, to head straight through Okinomiya and out the other end. The sooner we get out of the range of this whole plot the sooner we can fix things. Got it?"

Mion didn't respond. It appeared that she had accepted that idea. There wasn't anything left in the village for us anyhow. Rena might've been left behind, but at this point there was no way we could've made an attempt to save her. Without another word, we continued onward, down the road and out of the village. We now only needed to make it up the path and down another road – and then we'd be home free.

But suddenly, the man sped up and came closer to the car.

In his hands was –

Was that a grenade?

"Holy shi–"

But before Kasai could even register what was going on, the rear car door was open, Rika was jumping out, dragging Mion along with her. In the heat of the moment I took their lead, not sure what I was even thinking at the moment. The man tossed the grenade into the car, pulling the pin with his teeth. He slowed down instantly –

And the moment I fell out of the opened doorway, the car exploded in a burst of flame, taking Kasai with it. Shrapnel flew in every direction, with one of the car doors slamming into me before being carried off by the force of the blast. My vision swam for a moment but by the time I hit the ground I had regained control of myself.

I rolled onto the ground with a loud thud. It was a miracle in itself that I didn't break any bones from the impact. I stared off into the distance, noticing that both Mion and Rika had sustained the fall as well.

But Kasai was dead. There was no way any man, no matter how strong, could survive something like that.

I tried to stand up, finding it somewhat difficult. It seemed I'd damaged one of my legs after all, but I was still in good enough condition to move. I ran towards them as fast as I could, not doubting for a second that the man would be following suit behind me. I couldn't give up, so I couldn't look back. Even if Kasai's death wasn't guaranteed I would still have to leave him behind.

I stumbled forward a few times, but eventually I managed to get close enough that when I tripped I landed on Mion, who had been anticipating my fall.

"Are you okay?" She whispered in my ear. I nodded my head and she sighed with relief.

"What about you? And Rika?"

"We're fine for the moment." Rika chimed in from behind us. Even in this sort of situation, even though she apparently had temporary blindness from the bullet grazing her, she seemed perfectly calm and under control. Any ten year old girl under these sorts of conditions would've probably been crying their eyes out at this point. She'd even been the first to jump out of the car... But at this point, questioning Rika had already proven to lead to nothing in the end anyway.

Taking my eyes off of her for a moment, I moved myself away from Mion and looked behind us. The man was there – he had apparently abandoned the motorcycle, but he was still headed our way.

"We need to move." I told Mion before taking her by the hand.

"Right…Rika, are you good to go?"

But when we turned towards the girl, she was nowhere in sight.

"…Rika?" Mion glanced around somewhat frantically.

Did she _really_ just run off? What was she thinking?

"…Look, lets' go." I had to focus on the matter at hand. And I had to protect Mion. This was my job and my job alone now – I had to complete it at all costs.

"But what about Rika?"

"Look, she probably headed into the woods. Let's try to catch up with her."

Mion still seemed distressed, but she nodded her head before we both ran off into the woods.

We managed to avoid slowing down, but judging from the sounds behind us the man was hot on our trail. We would have to fight him off in a matter of moments. But did we have anything to fight with? There didn't seem to be anything on hand –

Suddenly, I felt a tug as Mion was ripped away from me. She screamed before I heard a loud grunt. I turned almost on a dime to find that Mion had been grabbed by the man, but she had managed to land a solid punch to his face. She rolled off to the side, having lost her footing.

I stared the man down – it was just the two of us now. I got a good look at him, once again recalling that he was no older than I am.

But something else suddenly caught my attention – the demon was once again on the scene, standing atop the tree branches above the man.

My gaze locked with the demon's, before I forced myself to act like the demon won't suddenly jump me and once again face the man. I decide the best course of action right now is to try speaking to him. If he were planning on only killing us, we would've been dead already. But there had to be something more to it. I figured the best way to find out what would be to somehow get it out of our attacker.

"So…What are you? Some kind of monster?"

The man grunted. "You're not that far off…" He scrutinizes me, adjusting his glasses which I only just now noticed he was wearing. "But that's really none of your business. Now move out of my way. You might just live a little longer."

"Is that a threat?"

The man sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "Of _course_ it's a threat… 'Is that a threat?' he asks me… I swear I feel dumber just listening to you."

…This conversation seemed oddly familiar. I knew now there _had _to be a connection.

"I'll ask again. What are you? And what's your relation to that other asshole?"

"I'll tell you again. Move aside. Otherwise I'll have to kill you."

"You're not going to get lucky with me."

"You place that little value on your life?"

"Why are you so dead set on getting past me?"

"You expect me to tell you?"

"You're after Rika, aren't you?"

"And what if I am?"

"I won't let you get anywhere near her."

"You seem a bit fearless. Or perhaps you have no perception of what death is…" The man pulled a pistol from his coat pocket. My muscles tensed up – there was little I could do against a firearm without any sort of defense aside from my own fists, so this was likely going to be the end of it. I would try to dodge the shot, but there was likely little that I could do aside from that. Whatever happend I would just have to accept. I took a deep breath, preparing for the worst.

The man pulled the trigger. I jumped backward and fell over –

And Mion let out a hoarse cry.

There is nothing but silence. I can't even hear the cicadas anymore. The lasting sound of the bullet rings off into the distance. I simply remain there, motionless on the floor, as I stare at the man before me.

He hadn't aimed the pistol at me. He'd aimed at Mion. And he had hit her.

"Perhaps _now_ you'll understand exactly what death entails…"

I was too stunned to do anything. My eyes drifted between the man and the small pool of blood forming under Mion. That shot had to have been fatal although I couldn't quite see the wound.

I blacked out.

I blacked out and I could no longer see anything.

Mion was dead.

Mion was dead.

I was supposed to protect her. But I couldn't. I told her she could leave everything else to me. But I failed her.

One little pistol was all it took to bring me to a full stop.

That was my limit. And there was nothing that could change that.

Mion was dead, and I was going to die a moment later.

I couldn't accept it. But I couldn't do anything about it this time. My death was absolute.

…But even then.

I was not going to forfeit until the very last moment.

And this man – he killed Mion.

He had to pay.

I had to kill him.

He had to die. And I have to do it myself.

My eyes snap open.

The scene hadn't changed. I was still sitting there, completely motionless. The man was still standing in place staring at me, waiting for some sign of movement.

"Hm… I wonder if killing this girl was going too far? It seems you've lost yourself. Oh well. I wasn't planning on letting you live for very long anyhow. It's too bad, really. You had some ambition. But all ambition ends in nothing more than defeat."

He aimed the pistol at me this time.

Oh no. He wasn't going to have his way quite just yet.

"You…"

"Hm? You still have some life left in you?" He seemed genuinely surprised.

In that moment, I let out a loud scream. I grabbed the bloodied cleaver that sat at my side and I ran towards him, all in a motion that went by long before he could register what was happening. I raised the cleaver into the air and with a sickening crunch I claimed his left arm.

He screamed in pain before firing his pistol. I'd been shot in the thigh, but at this point I _really_ didn't give a shit. I plunged the cleaver forward and into his chest. He gasped for air as he spat blood across my face.

"Your name." I spoke in a cold, uncaring voice that I didn't even know I had. I at least wanted to know the name of the first man I ever killed more out of cold blood than self defense.

"Y-You…So it was true…!" He gagged once again, producing more blood and bile.

"Your name." I demanded once more.

"…"

"Your…Name…!" I once again demanded, this time pushing the cleaver slightly further into his chest. His remaining hand grabbed onto the blade, attempting to no avail to pull it out.

"…Sa…Saturo…A..An…"

But he took too long. With one final push I plunged the cleaver straight through his body, leaving an exit wound on the opposite side. Ripping it out in one fluid motion, the man apparently named Saturo fell over to the side, dead and motionless.

But that wasn't enough. He'd killed Mion. This was not enough.

This was not enough.

He had to suffer more.

But he was already dead.

I then began to stab him repeatedly, over and over…

…

What was I doing?

What was this?

What was happening?

Why was I doing this?

This wasn't me.

Where did the cleaver even come from?

It was the one from before, without a doubt.

But why did I have it? Did I have it the entire time and not realize it?

Why was I doing this?

He was dead. That should have been enough.

Then why wouldn't I stop?

My eyes shot skyward –

The demon was no longer there.

I looked down on my attacker. It must have been true – he must have been the demon. The one responsible for everything. I had killed him. But in the end, I doubted things were over. It couldn't end this easily.

Suddenly, my thoughts were interrupted by a loud cough.

My head shot towards Mion's direction. She was still alive.

I ran over to her.

She had rolled over and so I was able to see the wound. A bullet had found a home in her chest. It was a wonder that she was even still alive.

"Mion…Mion, are you alright?"

She continued coughing. I thought of doing something – anything that could possibly ease her pain. But in the end I realized I couldn't do anything – he would die here, and there would be no changing that. He probably had come to terms with that herself.

"Rika…?" She spoke softly, likely with what little strength she had left. Her eyes were weary, and it seemed like she was fighting all kinds of urges to close them. It was a very particular look – the kind of look that told me she wasn't going to make it.

"She's fine. Don't worry." I reassured her. In reality, I had no idea where Rika was, but I had to assume she was safe for now.

Mion smiled slightly. "You're such a bad liar… But I'll let it go… Just this once." Mion coughed up blood as she spoke. I almost looked away – I couldn't stand seeing her in such a position. But I had to. If I turned away now, then I might as well have been putting her out of her misery. I knew enough to understand that all she wanted right now was to look at me.

"Mion…You don't have to say anything. All you need to do is –"

"All I need to do is…What? Kei-chan, we both know I'm not going to make it."

"…You know, I've never heard someone say something like that with such a straight face." I tried to swallow my fear. I tried my hardest to keep under control. The last thing Mion needed to see was me losing my cool. Although I've pretty much already done that.

"Well, there aren't that many Mion Sonozakis in the world. Although if I were my sister instead of me, I'd probably be laughing my ass off right about now…"

"I would've probably run off scared shitless by now, then."

Mion smiled slightly once again. "I'm happy, Kei-chan."

"Hm?" I tried to keep my voice from cracking. But it seemed like I'd failed at that.

"…You kept your promise. You didn't change, no matter what happened. You stuck by me to the end…"

"Oh... I thought you were talking about that one where I wouldn't blab about what went on in that hallway."

Mion shook her head slightly. It seemed as if she had wanted to say something, but her eyes told me she lacked the energy to get it out.

"…Mion, I'm…"

"One…One apology out of you and I'll…I'll kill you. Got it?"

I nodded my head.

"…Kei-chan…"

"Yeah?"

"You still owe me for covering for you back when you snuck out of class to buy snacks…"

"Ah, right…I'd forgotten. You know, given the circumstances and all."

"So…You want to pay me back now?"

"I don't…I don't have much on me." It was becoming almost impossible to keep up my casual demeanor.

At that moment, Mion raised her shaky hand and latched onto me, pulling me down towards her.

She kissed me – rather roughly at that, seemingly with what little energy she had left. In a couple of seconds she released me, her head falling back to the ground with a thud.

"That'll do…Now you need to get going…You're being followed. You have to go on. You and Rika have to live… Don't ever forget about that…"

"Mion…"

"You've done more than enough for me…I'm really happy, Kei-chan. But I don't… I don't want you to watch me die…"

"Nonsense…I'm staying right here. And you can't convince me otherwise."

"…I'm not going to look very good if you stick around that long. If I don't look…Look my best, I don't want to be anywhere near you."

"What, you thought I cared about how you looked?"

"Don't all guys…Think about that kind of stuff?"

"Well then I'm probably not a guy."

"Damn…I might as well have gone after…my sister…"

I wasn't sure what I was going to answer that with. At this point I was probably crying. But as long as Mion was alive, I had to make sure that she smiled.

"…Kei-chan…"

She smiled at me, even though her expression was ever so pained as she did so.

"…Don't forget about me."

"…I won't. Never…"

"…It's funny... I wanted to spend the rest of my days with you... Looks like I got just that, eh...?"

"Mion, I –"

But I cut myself off, as in that moment her head rolled lightly to the side. Her smile, however, did not vanish.

I stood from her side, my eyes clouded by tears.

I stared off into the forest – and only a few feet away from me stood Rika, her face as unexpressive as it had been that time before.

I turned back towards Mion. I began to wonder – would there be any point in running anymore? Couldn't I just stand here and accept my fate? I'd accomplished my goal. But Mion was dead. The village was going to be in shambles by the morning. I doubted I'd ever see my parents again either. This had to be the end of the road...

For some reason, Rika made her way over towards me and embraced me.

"…This was inevitable. There was nothing you could do."

"But I _could_ have done something. If I had just acted sooner…"

"In the end there's nothing that could have saved her anyway. But _we_ can still escape. We're the only two left, but we can manage… Please, you have to come with me."

"And leave her here?"

"We don't have a choice… Mion told you to run. We need to keep moving. Otherwise she'll have died for nothing."

With a great amount of hesitance, I gave Mion one last longing stare before I ran off into the forest with Rika.

The contents of Mion's letter came to memory. Rika and I had to survive. And in the end, Rika was all that I had left to protect.

And so we ran. We ran on and on, into the forest. Towards the only salvation we might have had left.

* * *

_No Days Remain (July 1__st__, 1983)_

In the end there was no escape. The men in the uniforms eventually found us, even though the odds were completely against them. Rika had simply said that we were in the forest – the gap between Hinamizawa and the outside world. So our fate was already sealed. I didn't get the details, as usual, but I had a feeling it didn't even matter how we died – just as long as we perished here and now.

And so we ran. We ran, as far as we could and for as long as we could. But no matter how far away from the village we managed to run, we would always be found in a matter of hours. We ran through what seemed to be some sort of an endless forest that sprawled further onward than I ever thought I could run. There was nothing much more that I could do. With Rika in tow, we'd just die faster. But I was determined to save her. I had to. She was all that I had left. But despite all of that, despite my determination to survive and Rika's soft yet powerful words of encouragement, there was more or less no feasible way that we could shake our chasers – in the end I was more than prepared to give up.

All the while, the cicadas cried. The cicadas cried right along with us. I almost felt comfort in their cries – it was as if we weren't the only ones suffering. It wasn't the most pleasant idea to take comfort in, but it had to do.

We managed to reach what I believed was the end point. There was nothing but forest in all directions, and at this point we'd been running for about seven hours straight. We managed to survive for long enough in the wilderness with nothing to defend ourselves with but the darkness of the night, but in broad daylight there wasn't much we could have done. There wasn't a soul around – no hikers or anything of the sort. There was simply no human contact whatsoever. We were simply running into the forest – the forest that wouldn't end.

"Rika…I'm not so sure…"

"You can keep going. I know you can."

"But…I think I'm…" In the end there was the reality I had to face. My leg was wounded. I had gone for quite some time without any sort of treatment. I was at my mortal limit. But of course I had to push past and beyond that limit, no matter how long it took or how senseless it became.

"Just keep running. Don't think – just go… That's the only way."

I tried to listen to her. I kept running as fast as I possibly could. I kept moving along, almost stumbling at times. But as time passed it could feel it. I was covering less distance by the moment. I'd lower Rika, but her left leg was still damaged from that scrape with our attackers awhile ago, albeit not as bad as my own injury. But there was still the wound from before that she had to deal with. I had to keep going.

I had to.

But I wouldn't.

"Rika…I'm…It's too late."

"Keiichi, don't give up now…!"

I came to a halt far too quickly. Rika ended up falling from my shoulders as I more or less fell over to the side.

That was it. That was the end point. That was the last moment. There was nothing to do now but accept my fate. I'd broken my promise with Shion, but now I was betraying Mion. I had no motivation to keep going.

Soon enough, I could hear the shouts of our attackers in the distance.

"So much for that idea…I'm sorry."

"Don't." Rika hangs her head and stares at me with that empty yet depressing gaze from before. "It…It was my fault. Thinking things would be any different this time around…" As usual I had no idea what she was saying, but I decided the best course of action was to just smile and actually pat her on the head for once. It was pretty awkward given my position, but she was short enough that it worked out.

"Look. I'm the idiot who kept running. I should know better than to trust an unnecessarily cute voice whispering in my ear."

For a moment, she seemed to take amusement in that joke. But another shout form our attackers reached our ears and so it was short lived.

"…Keiichi…If there was a way…I would, but I –"

"It's fine. I was starting to miss Mion's constant complaining anyway… It all works out."

Rika shook her head before smiling at me somewhat sadly. "Keiichi… I never should have let this happen to you."

"There wasn't anything anyone could do. It was either kill or be killed in that situation… Too bad I got stuck with both."

Rika collapsed on top of me, wrapping her arms around me and crying into my shirt.

"Ah, damn…Oh, wait, this actually works out. I needed to get those bloodstains out anyway. It saves me the money."

"…Keiichi. You don't deserve this."

"Neither do you. So there – we're both even here."

The voices got louder.

"Keiichi…I'll save you. I promise. No matter how long it takes."

"…"

"I promise…I'll spend another thousand years if I have to – I won't let you just fade away like this."

"…Rika…"

I then said something that I had no place saying. In fact, it was something that I'd never even though of saying before. It wasn't something that I would've said under any circumstances, aside from these right now.

"…You'll be saying that in another thousand years."

She looked up at me with a look of confusion. I continued to smile at her softly.

"Keiichi…"

…

"…Yeah. I know…And it's too late."

…

"But…That can't be true…"

…

"We already had our miracle. You already tried hard enough. You have to let it go."

"…I won't. I never will."

"Heh…I figured you'd say that."

"I promise… I'll do it. I'll find a way. So we can all…"

But in that moment, our attackers came upon us and –

* * *

_From Beyond the Looking Glass_

_The Endless Sorcerer_

What a terrible fate awaits the good and the kind. But it is fate. And fate is much like a cannonball. A cannonball doesn't pick and choose whose life it claims. It might not even claim the life the one who fired it intended to claim. It simply is fired. And no one can stop it, no matter how hard they try.

I pity you. It's the truth. I'd say it for you in as many colors as you'd like. I truly pity those like you who lose everything they ever fought to preserve in an instant. I pity you immensely. In fact, your plight almost brings me to tears. But in the end, you passed on before I did, and so I cannot have any real bearing on you or the tragedy you faced. In reality there's nothing I can do for you. No matter how many of you there are, there is nothing I can do. All I can do is watch from afar and shed light on your tragic tale. I hope that you'd at least be willing to accept that, if nothing else.

So – I shall now speak directly to you. You who watch this spectacle from a world that I cannot even begin to understand.

I shall say it now. I shall say it many times as this tale progresses. But it is something that you must take to heart. Something that many before you, and many after you, won't.

This story is not a fantasy.

This story may be sprinkled with demons and gods and whatever else might be thrown your way. But this is ultimately a story about people. Humans. Solid, corporeal creatures. This is a story about the death of people. Not about the demons that killed them. In a sense, the demon that you have seen claim the lives of so many is more metaphorical than anything else. And as you are aware – there is a force at work that should not be at work. But in the end, I wonder if that statement is even completely true.

I could try to say it in red. But that would spoil the fun.

From the moment I spoke those words, you must have been curious. 'But didn't I just watch a monster tear Rena's arm off? Didn't a monster go on a killing spree? Didn't a monster finish off everyone else in the village?' In fact, you witnessed all of those things, yet none of those things at the same time.

As this is story is not a fantasy, it must be a mystery, correct? If that is the case, then there must be a culprit. Someone who did all or most of the killings. In other words, one who killed others purposely. And in any mystery, save for the _Hound of the Baskervilles_, the killer tends to be human. And where the killer is not human, the killer is controlled by a human. Isn't it up to you, the reader, to determine which is which?

I, however, will assist you in this regard. I feel obligated to those who perished years before I did. I feel the need to complete this broken tale of theirs. And so I will deconstruct each killing for you with nothing but pure, unadulterated fact. Is there in fact a demon that roams the streets of Hinamizawa? Or is the truth perhaps not as extravagent?

I shall first provide you with universal truths that are applied to every single tale that you and I shall unveil. We shall not speak afterward, so I shall leave you with one final bit of advice that you must remember – you must let go of the 'why.' You must determine the 'who' and 'how.' When you have determined the possibilities and the impossibilities, then you may potentially consider the 'why'. That is the only way this mystery can be solved.

**A killer is defined as one who kills intentionally, with the motive to kill not including defensive exercise. A killer may kill accidently, but the majority of their murders must be intentional.  
****The detective is not the culprit.  
****At the start of all tales, the school girl's death goes unresolved.  
****At the end of all tales that take place in 1983, Miyo Takano erases Hinamizawa and its inhabitants.  
****At the end of all tales, every resident of Hinamizawa is dead.  
****Until conflict with Okinomiya begins, no visitors from Okinomiya are present in the village on any day or evening of any attack.  
****Okinomiya citizens are not conspirators. The mob is not a collection of culprits. The culprit may, however, be amongst the mob.  
****Starting on the eve of the Watanagashi Festival, Miyo Takano will disappear and will be inactive for two days.  
****Only the detective and their assistant can confirm a dead body.  
****The Hinamizawa Syndrome, when administered, is administered by injection.  
****Only Irie, Miyo, and Mion are capable of administering the injection.  
****The man with the black hat is not the culprit.  
****I am not the culprit. **Because I'm sure one of you was somehow going to suggest that.

And so, with those out of the way, I will get right to work… We shall start with the first twili…. Oh, forgive me. Solving a mystery brings back old habits. Anyhow, without any further adieu…

_I shall reveal to you the nature of the __**Okinomiya and Sonozaki Massacres**_.  
The school girl's death must go unsolved. There was but one witness, but she perished before sharing the details of the murder. **The details of the school girl's death therefore go eternally missing.  
**The remaining massacres all involve the same culprit.  
The killer involved was from Hinamizawa.  
There were no other witnesses aside from the one mentioned.  
No further details about the massacres exists. The detective's perspective was either flawed or not given at all. **A culprit can be assumed but not determined.**

_Next, I shall reveal to you the nature of __**Houjou Satoko's Death.  
**_The culprit is limited only to those that knew where the four were hiding and the demon.  
Satoko received the tea from Rika and brought it to her room. From the moment the tea was given to her and until she entered her room and locked the door, no one tampered with the tea.  
Satoko died instantly.  
At the time Satoko fell asleep, everyone was in their respective room.  
All of the alarms were set. None of the alarms were set off. Therefore, **no doors were opened.  
**

**The Furude house is built like such:  
**There are two stories. The bottom floor has two guest rooms on either side of the main hallway and the kitchen at the far end. On both walls perpendicular to the kitchen doorway and past the doorways to the two guest rooms are two sets of stairs that both lead up to the second floor. On the second floor (exactly as Keiichi describes) there is one guest room and the main bedroom. The guest room has a balcony. The balcony enables someone in the guest room to reach Satoko's room without touching her door.  
The left guestroom is identical to the right guest room. Both have single doors and two windows. Both windows were unlocked that evening.  
It is possible to reach the second floor from the outside without using the stairs.  
It takes approximately five minutes to reach Satoko's room from the bottom floor and three to return.  
It takes approximately one minute to scale the roof.  
It takes approximately one minute to reach Satoko's window from the edge of the roof above it.  
It takes approximately one minute to reach the roof from the balcony.  
It takes approximately four minutes for a person to leave the premises of the house from Satoko's room.  
Demon or human, the culprit would have been immobile had they jumped.  
The time of Satoko's death was not revealed. **I, however, will confirm that between the time she fell asleep and woke up, seven minutes had passed.  
**If the culprit could did not plant the poison and return to their room or leave the premises in that seven minute window, Satoko would have discovered them no matter where they were.  
**In Mion's room (the left guest room) the doors and windows were unlocked.  
****In Rika's Room (the right guest room) the door was locked, but the windows were open.  
****In Satoko's room (the main bedroom) the door was locked. The window was left open.  
****In Keiichi's room (the guest room) all doors and windows were locked. None were opened until Keiichi** **woke the next morning. There are no secret exits inside or outside the room that connect to it.**

_Next, I shall reveal to you the nature of __**Mion Sonozaki's Death.  
**_There is no error in the detective's perspective. The events you witnessed were factual. **Keiichi Maebara witnessed Saturo murder Mion Sonozaki.**

_And Last, I shall reveal to you the nature of __**Rika Furude's and Keiichi Maebara's Deaths.  
**_As there are no human witnesses to their deaths, they cannot be truly considered dead. **As such, they will go eternally missing, never to be considered alive or dead. **

_But Don't Forget the nature of __**the lost two.  
**_**Rena Ryuugu does not die until July 1****st****.  
****Shion Sonozaki's whereabouts were unknown. **But by the undeniable truth mentioned above, all citizens of Hinamizawa are dead at the end of all tales. Therefore, Shion must be considered dead, but as her death cannot be witnessed by the detective or the detective's assistant, **Shion is therefore considered eternally missing.**

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

So there you have it. The end of the first arc – excluding the second main chapter. I apologize if this dragged anywhere – I actually cut two entire sections out because of how long the chase went on for.

Anyway, so here we have a bit of narration done at the end by none other than everyone's favorite Phoenix Wright impersonator. This more or less functions as the facts that go with the mystery. You can attempt to solve the current major incident and come to at least two different conclusions, but ultimately, unless you've narrowed down the who and how and think you've nailed the culprits motive (which you haven't, by the way), this first chapter serves more as a base for what's to come.

This is how these mystery sections will work in detail:

You'll read the chapter, take in the narration from that chapter, then review the facts you get at the end. But as you're being handed facts without having had to figure any of them out for yourself, you have to at least know that you haven't been given the whole truth – just chunks of it. The chapter itself will provide the remainder – and eventually, once you've twisted the scenario around in your head enough times, you'll be able to narrow down a culprit.

The story itself has one consistent culprit, and at the same time one consistent detective and assistant. It basically comes down to who can perform the most killings and who _does_ perform the most killings. For example, say I gave you a chapter that took place from the culprit's perspective. If that culprit ends up killing fewer people than a certain other character, they are _not_ the culprit for the overall story. That being said, I definitely won't do that.

Anyhow, that's all I have to say for now. I'll have the next chapter up within the next two days. This time around, the main plot is going to finally kick in. Also, expect more _End Dreamer_ related stuff to happen. Although plenty of that is going on as it is.

**Update: **Fixed a few issues with the chapter. Also, the next chapter is likely going to be delayed significantly.


	5. B Chapter: The Third Awakening

_**Author's Note**_

*Sighs heavily*

Well, here I am with the next chapter, _much _later than anticipated. In retrospect, this chapter is far and away the hardest chapter I think I've ever written. Why? Because it's essentially one huge info dump. There's a ton of things going on all at the same time and there isn't much as far as progression goes. I tried to keep things going in my usual fashion, but I'm just not that pleased with the finished product. Mainly because when the plot stops in its tracks it gets a bit difficult to keep the writing fresh. But it's all still necessary information.

After shaving down about 30% of the entire thing I still feel that it's a bit cluttered, but hopefully it won't seem that alarming. Anyhow, that's about all I have to say about this until _after_ you've gone through this whole thing.

* * *

_**B Chapter – The Third Awakening**_

_The Abandoned Room (June 1__st__, 2036)_

My eyes snapped open once again. It took me a few minutes, but I was finally able to register my surroundings. I was once again in the glass prison, surrounded by the strange water and suspended in place for the most part. I blinked several times to verify. I stared out into the room behind the glass – there was no sign of anyone. It seemed that I was once again back in this place, and once again I was completely alone.

I didn't understand the significance of the vision I had just had – no, this was no vision. This wasn't anything like my dream of Riku Furude and the burning Onigafuchi. What I had just experienced was far too real for something like that. I had once again taken on my role as Rika Furude, and once again I was placed in the disintegrating community that composed Hinamizawa. I had resumed my voyaging through the endless June once again, and as I had so many times before I ultimately perished, as did those around me.

Being placed in that situation once more – it had reminded me of the strength I once had. The strength to never give up, despite all odds. The strength to not follow in my ancestor's footsteps and fight against the destiny that I had eventually succumbed to. It seemed that being placed back into Hinamizawa had revived me completely – the empty feeling I had before reawakening to my humanity was no longer present within me. It seemed I was fully human once more – emotionally, mentally, and everything else that you could associate with being human.

But for the time being, I had to accept my current situation. I was still trapped, and there was no sign of escape, just as it was before. But with my solitude, I had time to think.

I had so many questions. I didn't know where to begin. Things were just so vastly _different_ this time around that I probably had many chances to act but didn't know to act upon any of them. A demon, running amok in the streets? A conflict between the Sonozaki family and the entirety of Okinomiya? An incident from the year Satoshi went missing? These things were not part of the Hinamizawa that I knew. What had caused these things to happen? Why did the village heads suddenly have a history with demons? Why was Keiichi the only one who could witness the Furude Demon towards the end? Why did he constantly black out? And why was I following his perspective instead of my own the entire time? What was that entire experience, even? A dream? A simulation?

These questions were so complicated in nature that I couldn't even think of reasoning any of them out. And even if I tried I didn't have the sufficient information to answer any of them. I sighed with frustration. My humanity may have at long last returned, but in the end I couldn't go anywhere or do anything with it.

My eyes scanned everything in my line of sight for some indication of an escape route. I needed to get out of this prison, first and foremost, before I could think about anything else with any amount of seriousness. But the glass was free of blemishes or any sort of weak point in the slightest. I had tried kicking the glass on more than one occasion, but it didn't seem to get me anywhere.

Perhaps Hanyuu would at some point return. But I doubted it. She was, in all likelihood, gone for good. She'd probably given up again, as she was so quick to do in the past.

Eventually, I heard a muffled sound, followed by another muffled sound. My eyes darted across the room, searching for the source. Even the smallest change in my environment set me off like a stick of dynamite. I continued staring into the darkness, hoping for some sort of movement.

And then I saw it. A glint of metal, so small and so instantaneous. But clearly it had been there. My eyes caught it instantly, but lost sight of it just as quickly. But as the seconds went by, the glint appeared once again, this time brighter. And then once again, as it gradually seemed to get closer to the glass.

I then realized it. Whatever it was, whatever sort of metal was making that glint – it was heading straight towards me.

I backed away instantly – I had made my move, and I had made it at the most opportune moment, as the metallic object slammed into the glass with a great force, piercing through the encasement and shattering my prison in its entirety. I fell to the floor as the tank of liquid substance burst, getting cut by scattered pieces of glass in the process. The sudden change in temperature caused me to shiver, but at the moment I doubted I had time to tend to myself.

My head shot up – I could still see nothing but darkness ahead of me, but on the ground in front of me, amongst the shattered glass, was a bloodied cleaver – it was identical to the one that Rena had used. But there was something very impossible about this whole situation – how could someone have thrown a thin metal object like the cleaver with enough force to shatter a tank made of reinforced glass? And far enough away that I couldn't see who had thrown it?

But then the person in mention came into view – or rather, they dashed towards me at blinding speeds before grabbing the cleaver and making a charge at me, all in one fluid motion.

I rolled to the side to avoid the first swing of the cleaver. Crawling backward as much as I could, I narrowly avoided the second swing. My mind went blank for a moment as I scrambled to my feet and dodged the third swing, which had been aimed towards my neck and would've succeeded in taking my whole head with it had I'd been a second too late.

I had nothing to defend myself with, but I had to think –

I then quickly searched the ground for the largest shard of glass I could find. I doubted it would do much good but it was certainly better than nothing. But as I searched the floor I found something better – the metal covering to the tank was resting in a pool of that liquid substance only a few feet away. It would doubtlessly make for a perfect shield, if I could just get away from this person for even a moment.

While avoiding the fourth and fifth swings, I managed to work my way across the room in the direction I had intended. Without facing away from my attacker, I reached for the covering and luckily managed to grab it on my first attempt. As the sixth strike came for me, I held the covering in front of me, successfully blocking the attack. But my assailant did not relent – they continued to press down on my makeshift shield, determined to overpower me.

It was at this moment that I could glimpse their face.

It was a woman. She had silver hair and blood red eyes that stood out even in the darkened room. Her skin was incredibly pale, making it seem as if she hadn't been exposed to sunlight in years. Her face was locked into a twisted grin that spread from ear to ear. But despite all of that, her face and expression – I knew who this was. I'd most definitely seen her before.

It was Rena. It was Rena, who for some reason not only looked different, but was trying to kill me.

Why was she trying to kill me? Did she not recognize me because of my altered appearance? That had to be it. There wouldn't be a reason for her to go at me like this otherwise. Rena wouldn't hurt any of her friends.

"Rena…! Don't you recognize me?!" I gasped as Rena pressed down on the shield with nearly inhuman strength. She was going to overpower me in a matter of seconds if I didn't get her to come to her senses.

But in that moment she stopped. Her grin seemed to fade slightly, as her eyes locked with mine. I had a feeling that in that instant she knew who I was.

"Rena, it's me – Rika!" I searched her eyes for any sign of doubt, but found none.

Her eyes widened as she looked at me with a look of genuine shock.

"…Rika-chan?" She whispered.

"That's right… It's me. I don't look the same, but it's me…"

She sighed. It seemed that Rena had calmed down. I smiled at her reassuring her – if she _did_ have any doubt in her mind as to who I was, that smile would've likely dissolved it. I relaxed, lowering the shield.

I knew Rena would come to her senses. We were good enough friends that she'd never want to intentionally hurt someone – she was like that before, and despite how vastly different she appeared, she seemed to hold to that now. Rena was always like that – no matter what she did, she would protect her friends, no matter the cost. Even before, in that simulation, she was willing to abandon everything she ever wanted for the sake of protecting her friends and family.

But in that moment, her look of surprise twisted back into that demented grin. She broke out into a fit of uncontrollable disturbing laughter as she looked upon me with a truly condescending look.

"_Holy shit!_" She shouted. "I didn't even know you were _that _Rika!"

She swung the cleaver towards me. Having been taken completely off guard I only managed to escape with my life by stepping backward, apparently far enough to have escaped the blade.

"It _is_ you! It really is! I'd recognize that condescending smile anywhere!" She laughed. I stared at her in confusion. Something was horribly wrong here but –

But before I could think any further, she swung the cleaver again, and again. At this point I was able to block them with my shield out of reflex while my mind raced.

Eventually we locked in place, sword against shield once again. She smiled at me with a truly evil and purely malicious smile.

"Yeah…That's right. That pretty little face of yours… You have _no idea_ how much I'm going to _love_ cutting it up…!"

In a fit of rage, she swung at me again and again, each strike more vicious than the last.

This wasn't Rena. This couldn't be Rena.

Rena wasn't like this. She wouldn't ever do something this brutal or say something so vile. There was something horribly wrong here.

"What's wrong?" She taunted me. "You're not going to fight back? Are you finally gonna submit to me?"

She knocked me over simply by pushing me. I landed on the floor, dropping the shield at my side. Rena brought the cleaver over her head, wanting nothing more than to see blood spray from wherever it was she wanted to stab me. She even seemed to be contemplating how she would do it. But she was clearly getting impatient with herself.

"That's right… I want you to beg. Beg for mercy. Beg me to spare you. Beg me like the piece of shit you are…!"

But in that instant, only a moment or two before she would've killed me no matter what I said, a thundering voice rang out in the room.

"_Enough!_" An adult male's voice screamed from somewhere off to the side.

From within the darkness came two massive arms, covered in pitch black fur, with hands adorned with the claws of a wolf. Flying towards us, the left arm slammed into Rena, while the right arm grabbed a hold of me. Both of us were flung backwards, hitting the walls of the room. The impact was hard enough that I should have died from it, but by some sort of luck I wasn't injured in the slightest. The pain was still immense, although it vanished after a few moments.

Rena wasn't so lucky. She slammed into the wall and let out a sharp hiss before the clawed hand released her. She crumpled to the floor like a rag doll, clearly having died from the impact. The arm released me, and along with its counterpart it slithered away into the darkness like a snake.

I collapsed to the floor. My body was still shaking from the pain, even though I clearly wasn't injured.

All of a sudden, the voice rung out again.

"Yeah, it's me – exoskeleton functionality works just fine. Tested it myself… No, I didn't fill out the paperwork… Why? I figured out that if you fire me over all of your dumb paperwork shit I can just stop buying your groceries. So there. I'll let you think about that for awhile… Yeah, yeah. Love you too, Mom. Bye."

I heard a slight click before the voice sighed. Following those sounds, I could hear footsteps. Footsteps that were growing louder.

"For the love of god – Are you really dead?"

The figure came into view. I recognized him instantly.

The black hat. The black coat. The yellow eyes – it was that man. The man who most definitely wasn't supposed to be in Hinamizawa, and on top of that knew of my past identity as Bernkastel. This man – this man definitely wasn't human. That much I knew.

As he drew closer, I could finally catch a glimpse of his face.

…Keiichi?

No, that wasn't possible.

"Who…Are you?" I spoke.

The man looked at me like I was the most insignificant thing in the world before sighing. "Look, I'll get to you in a bit, alright? First of all…"

The man snapped his fingers together, and in that moment Rena's lifeless corpse came to life. With a sharp cry, Rena's bones reassembled and relocated themselves as she was very painfully revitalized. Her body floated a few inches off the ground as it thrashed every which way imaginable. Every single flexible point on her body swung every which way, dislocating and relocating themselves in sporadic patterns. Eventually, once the process finished, Rena collapsed to the floor, panting heavily.

She swore at the top of her lungs. "I…I hate you…" She hissed. "You and your goddamn re-entry… Ah, shit, that hurts…!"

"I swear to god, Nero. I let you out of Hell for all of _fifteen minutes_ and _what _do you do? You go off on your own, against my orders, and you try to kill the goddamn project!" The man yelled at her.

Suddenly, the violent Rena that I had known for all of fifteen minutes was completely gone.

"Aww… But Asty, she was just so cute! I wanted to take her ho-ome! That's all I was trying to do!" She spoke in a very typical Rena-sort of fashion. Her face was plastered into an innocent Rena-sort of smile as well.

I blinked several times, unable to comprehend what was happening before me.

But this wasn't Rena. This monster wasn't Rena. She couldn't be. Furthermore, the man had addressed her as Nero. I didn't understand the meaning, but at least it meant that she wasn't Rena… Even though now she was acting just like her.

The man smacked her across the face, issuing a very unlike-Rena swear from the vulgar girl.

I was still trying to wrap my head around what had happened. She had clearly died – but this man had snapped his fingers and she had, for lack of a better term, been reanimated. And now they were fighting – and it seemed that the Rena look-alike had completely shrugged off having been killed.

But then the man turns to me. The look on his face was so terrifying that if I weren't already plastered against the wall I would've backed away instantly.

"And you… You can't be serious. You're the only one that survived the testing, and you couldn't solve that piece of shit mystery?"

Was he talking about the simulation I had experienced?

"Do you have _any_ idea how easy I made that for you? You saw the signs. You knew shit was seriously wrong – I even _went in there in person _to warn you! I'm not even supposed to do that! And what did you do? 'Oh, I've got to save my friends, no matter what!' You just had to cool it for _five minutes _and maybe you would've passed! But no, you've gotta keep everyone from dying, and all that righteous crap that got you stuck here in the first place!"

The man sighed with severe irritation apparent in his voice.

"…Really, who would've guessed? That when Fredericka Bernkastel and Rika Furude separated… That _this_ is what was left behind."

I wasn't sure what to make of anything he was saying –

But I got the gist of it. I could recall the event that he was describing – the moment I separated from Bernkastel and stopped being the witch of miracles. But at some point, I had ended up in a place like this. My memory was so clear on all accounts except for this one – what had led me to being trapped in that glass prison? Why had I suddenly lost all desire to be human?

More importantly – was I even Rika Furude anymore? What this man had just said – it implied that when the two separated, _I _was left behind. Am I some remnant of the two?

"What are you…saying?" I tried to express my total state of confusion as best as possible.

The man sighed. "Shit… You really don't know anything, do you?"

"So there." The Rena look-alike spoke up. "She's a steaming pile of shit. Now can I have her already?!"

The man turned on a dime and smacked her once again.

"Keep your mouth shut. Or it's back in that box for you."

She fell silent. She didn't even have some sort of a retort that time. I hadn't the slightest ideas to what he had meant by 'that box,' but judging from her reaction, it wasn't something serious enough that she couldn't go on about it with her casual demeanor.

"Alright…Anyhow, I guess I've gotta run a few things by you… Even though you failed the test with flying colors, we've still got some use for you. But first things first. Since you actually managed to hold your own against Nero until I arrived…"

The man snapped his fingers. Out of thin air, a long black scythe, adorned with sapphire jewels along the hit and a blade carved from the darkest shade of steel I'd ever seen, appeared in his free hand. He lazily tossed the dangerous weapon across the room and in my general direction. I braced myself for some sort of an impact, but the weapon simply fell to the ground at my side.

My eyes darted from the man to the weapon before eventually settling on the weapon. The scythe had a certain glow to it – a glow that I felt was drawing me in. With some hesitation I reached out and grabbed the weapon. Upon physical contact, I felt a shiver travel up my spine – and a moment later, everything around me seemed to melt away – everything except for the scythe and its beautiful velvet haze.

The hilt was composed of the smoothest marble, with the sapphires embedded into gashes carved into it. The top end of the hilt was welded into a large sapphire that the curved blade was seemingly lodged into. My fingers traveled to the blade as I was mesmerized by how elegant such a dreadful weapon could be. But the further up I went the hilt became rough. The sapphires became jagged and the weapon seemed to lose the elegance it seemed to have. The blade itself was protruding out of the large sapphire as if someone had simply wedged it in there – the more I observed it, the less the scythe appeared to be a work of art and the more it appeared to be a deadly weapon.

My eyes snapped forward as I suddenly remembered where I was. The man looked down at me with a rather neutral expression. The Rena look-alike hadn't made much movement, nor did she appear to have any interest in what was going on.

I didn't know what had come over me – the scythe had drawn me in and had captured my attention completely. Looking away from it, I felt somewhat drained and tired. It was only then that I realized just what the weapon was capable of. I almost sighed with relief. While I still couldn't let go of it, at least I had managed to look away.

"Hm…" The man's face became pensive as he seemed to drift off into deep thought. Eventually, he nodded his head before speaking once again. "So it's true, then… You really are the original… Shit, it figures that the weakest one would be the one we need…" He gave a frustrated sigh before turning towards the girl behind him.

"It looks like _you_ were the one who got lucky, Nero. If she had any memory about even half of the shit she's capable of, I would've been the least of your troubles."

The girl shrugged her shoulders. "I didn't think so. You saw her, right? She was a few seconds from breaking. She couldn't even call her weapon."

The man turned towards me once again. "That scythe you're holding – you don't even recognize it, do you?"

I shook my head slowly. I most certainly hadn't seen a weapon quite like this one – I doubt I ever would've forgotten about it in the first place if I had. But this man seemed clearly convinced that I should have. There must have been something more to this that I wasn't aware of.

"That weapon… Well, it isn't a weapon. Not in the literal sense. What you have there is the Velvet Death. It's a celestial body formed from a human spirit of a very particular kind that's capable of taking on the form of literally any corporeal object that has ever existed."

"And my will… Demands something like this?"

"Right… The form can't be chosen by the user, so if the circumstances were right it could've been anything from a hair dryer to a nuclear warhead. The funny thing is, though, that there's only a specific individual that can use it."

"But, if that's true… What does this mean? Why can I use such a thing?"

"The Velvet Death is more or less an object that's passed down in the Furude Clan from heiress to heiress. It exists as a line of defense – defense against the forces that threaten the clan. It has all kinds of effects on those that are exposed to it – but I guess not even the true wielder is completely immune."

"Forces that threaten… Like that demon…?"

"You've got the idea. The Velvet Death, while its identity remains the same, takes on a different shape as it's passed along… But the trick is that only a _true_ Furude heiress is capable of using it."

"A true heiress?"

"If you were any other variant of Rika Furude, you would've been vaporized the second you touched that weapon. But, rather ironically, you're the original. The only one capable of putting that weapon to use. And you can't remember a single damn thing about it." The man sighed again.

I tried to run it all though my head. My gaze shifted to the Velvet Death, the mesmerizing scythe that apparently wasn't even truly a scythe. This was some sort of object that was apparently passed down through the clan. And apparently only the true heiresses to the clan were capable of using it.

I had a certain understanding of the rest of it, though. I was well aware of it – the sea of fragments, and the nature of each one. The many fragments that composed everything – I had traveled through hundreds of them, searching desperately for a way to escape from the certain death that plagued all but one of them. But even then, as my alternative self had expressed, time still rewound and I was sent into yet another fragment, with nothing but Hanyuu's encouragement to push me forward. Given the way things were here, in this strange room, I had a feeling that this place was completely removed from the sea of fragments I had been used to. This place was likely an entirely different sort of fragment in its entirety.

Based on what the man had said, only the very first Rika Furude from the original fragment could have even touched the Velvet Death without suffering an instantaneous death. As a result, I could at least confirm that I was the original Rika Furude, even though my appearance and physical condition were a far cry from what I could recall as my former self.

But this weapon – the Velvet Death – there was no such device passed down through my family. The only ceremonial artifact that could have been considered an heirloom of such a kind would be the Onigari no Ryuou. Yet this celestial object that I'd never even heard of before was suddenly in my possession. And it seemed as if every female Furude in history had been in possession of it – including myself.

Things were horribly off kilter here – the very foundation of my past as I believed I had known it was completely twisted and altered. More importantly, I doubted that my vision of the burning Onigafuchi and the twisted Hinamizawa from that simulation were unrelated.

"What is…What is going on here?" I spoke my mind rather clearly.

"Right… You're the original. Which means you're from a time before things got a little bit messy." The man sighed once again, fixing his hat before continuing. "The truth is, the Velvet Death is a bit strange in of itself – the simple idea of a celestial object that expresses the human will was never supposed to exist. And while I'm at it, the Hinamizawa that I made you experience wasn't supposed to exist either. But as it stands, both do. You following me?"

"That Hinamizawa – we all knew things weren't the way they should've been. So you're saying… It _was_ just a simulation?"

"Right – it was a simulation, but it was a simulation of something very real. In the end it was all just part of your testing. Testing that you failed miserably. But since you _are_ the original, I can't exactly just scrap you for another unit."

"Testing? Testing for what?"

"Testing to see if you were good enough to kill the demon. The one from the visions and the one from the simulation. The very same demon that's responsible for how screwed up things seem to you."

It began to make sense – little by little, but it was making sense none the less. I'd experienced an altered Hinamizawa for the sake of an experiment. The altered Hinamizawa and the Velvet Death were both products of some drastic alteration in the sea of fragments, and the demon was involved. But since when was I some lab rat? Why was I being kept alive solely because of my supposed usefulness? How had it all come to that – being trapped inside a glass tank and having visions of a demon? Why had everything been altered in such a way in the first place?

"Why am I here…? What was I doing before I…" I gripped my head as a wave of pain passed through it.

"It'd be easier if you stopped trying to reason things out. Considering how I dragged you to a place like this, I'd imagine that if you eventually _did_ remember everything you'd probably lose your mind. Fragment travel is one thing – but what I did to you? It's completely different. You should focus more on your new life as Serika and less on who you were in the past. It'll be easier for both of us that way."

"...Serika?"

"Serika, version 1.5. That's your official name. You're the nineteenth rendition of Rika Furude that was put through the testing. Ironically enough, you were the only one who came out even remotely functional."

This man – he was speaking to me as if I was some sort of machine. Perhaps at this stage of the game, it wasn't that far off the mark to assume that I _was_ some sort of a mechanical entity.

"…Who are you? And why do you look like Keiichi? Why did you bring me here? What happened to Hanyuu? Why am I…" My mind suddenly went alive with questions now that I at least had some idea as to what was going on.

"Ah, right… Shit, where do I start?"

The girl behind him suddenly snorted. "Geez, Asty. You're in a good mood today. When I went nuts you weren't this nice to me."

"Whereas you're in a particularly shitty mood."

"I spent the good part of a month strapped to a hospital bed with a missing arm and god knows what else. I don't think even you'd look good after something like that."

"And you – who are you and why do you look like Rena?!" My attention shifted to the girl. I didn't particularly like being ignored. In this case, though, I already had enough of a bone to pick with this girl as it was that my voice rose all on its own.

"Can't you at least hear properly?" She sneered at me before instantaneously breaking out into a sweet smile. "I'm Nero. It's nice to meet you, Serika-tan."

"But why do you look like Rena? Why are you two so similar?"

Nero's smile twisted into her usual scowl once more. "Can you do _any_ thinking for yourself? I look like Rena because I _am_ Rena, you dumbass."

"How is that even possible?" As far as I could tell, this girl and Rena were practically polar opposites.

"What, you never thought that hidden under all the sunshine and rainbows was a cold hearted bitch like yours truly? I've got news for you – Rena Ryuugu isn't any less of a bitch than you are."

My hands tightened around the scythe. At that moment I wanted nothing more than to strike this woman down for insulting Rena like that – there was no way these two were the same.

"Ooh, are you getting mad at me? I'm only telling you the truth. Under all of that good will is a girl who wants everything and doesn't give a damn about who she has to stomp all over to get what she wants – that's me."

I was about to blow a fuse – at this point, I didn't care what this poor excuse for a woman said about me. But insisting that one of my close friends was this corrupt – I wasn't going to take it for much longer. But suddenly, sensing that I was about to make a move that I probably would've regretted, the man raises his arm, shielding Nero while simultaneously shutting her up with a quick hiss.

"This isn't how this is going to work out. If the two of you are going to be at each other's throats _before_ we get shit underway, I'm going to send _both_ of you into the darkest corner of the deepest shithole I can find. You get it?" He shouted at the pair of us.

"Might not be a bad idea. You can do your own dirty work for once." Nero scoffed.

The man shot her a fiendish glare. "You know as well as I do that the only reason why you're even alive right now is that I _can't_ do my own dirty work. But I sure as hell can screw you over in ways you can't even imagine. So if you don't start shutting your damn mouth –"

"Alright, I get it…" Nero practically dismissed the threat altogether. I couldn't tell if it was because she was simply too ignorant to fear the man or she placed that little value on herself. But the latter idea didn't fit with what I knew about her.

"Moving on… You need to know the details." The man brought us back to the matter at hand. "I'm not one for explaining things, but I don't exactly have much of a choice here. If you go into things without the full details, you're not going to get anything done… So, are you ready? I'm not stopping, and I'm not repeating myself. So you'd better be ready to listen."

I nodded my head. I didn't know why I had been enlisted by this man, nor why he'd gone through such lengths to secure the 'perfect' Rika Furude – but it seemed it had been tied to Bernkastel. Ultimately I knew nothing of what had happened to Bernkastel after my initial separation with her, nor did I know a thing about how I'd ended up here afterward. I decided to listen – and based on what he had to say, I could make a decision about where to go from here.

And so he began the tale. And ultimately I didn't have a choice – because the situation was far worse than I could have possibly imagined.

The demon of the Furude clan was nothing more than an anomaly – a monster that was sealed away in a fragment that was built purely to protect the sea of fragments. It was born from an alleged 'ultimate sin' that resulted in the existence of a fragment where it was able to grow and essentially fester into the practically virulent monster that plagued my visions.

The demon was a singular entity for the longest time – it took on a completely humanoid form, as it seemed to do now. But eventually, once its power became too great to control, it was considered a danger by a collection of otherworldly entities that I believe included the man standing before me and was sealed away. Amongst the entities was Fredericka Bernkastel, who was the one ultimately responsible for weakening the demon enough to seal it.

But in more recent times, the sadness and rage pent up in the demon as a result of its imprisonment grew to such an extent that it became capable of breaking free of its bonds. It escaped from the fragment and proceeded to replicate itself – essentially poisoning countless fragments with its existence and manifesting in the fragments' past, present, and future. The demon was not only invading but deteriorating the fragments, one by one until they eventually fell apart completely. And it had to be stopped – otherwise, the entire sea could become infected, thus setting off every balance in the universe and potentially destroying most of it.

This man's goal was to subdue it – and he apparently had the means to do so. While the demon had replicated itself in so many fragments, this man was apparently capable of tracking it down and finding the original. Apparently, destroying the demon's original form would be enough to eradicate them all.

But it seemed that it was impossible for him to do – impossible for anyone to do. Anyone with the singular exception of Bernkastel, who vanished entirely in the years following the demon's sealing. Without Bernkastel, there was essentially no hope – that was until the Serika Project began. The project's purpose was solely to create another Bernkastel from scratch – using her human template as a basis. The man's explanation left out some key details, but I was able to assume from what he did say that various incarnations of myself were removed from dying fragments and experimented upon, all of which perished during the various operations.

I was the sole survivor – simply because out of every fragment in the sea, they had surveyed my own – and had taken me, the very first Rika Furude. The one that had separated from Bernkastel and created the Witch of Miracles in the first place.

After a series of surgical processes, I'd apparently been outfitted with all sorts of equipment that apparently made me as durable as Bernkastel, although not quite up to snuff in most other areas. While the Velvet Death was supposedly a powerful weapon it didn't make up for the fact that I didn't possess any of the capacity that Bernkastel did.

I began to wonder – what exactly happened to her? Where did she vanish to? If so many people needed her, she must have been cruelest entity in the world to turn them all away. But in the end I didn't know enough about the situation to make any calls myself.

And so here I was – my fate was essentially sealed no matter which way I looked at things. I was either made to eventually perish when the demon infected my fragment despite having made it past the Endless June or live on as a mechanical shell of my former self with the power to potentially set things right.

I had, through less than proper means, been freed of my prison. And now, even though this man was clearly not trustworthy, he was giving me the opportunity to save my friends. And no matter what I thought of him I had to at least grant him that.

"So you understand now?"

"I'm not sure what to say…" When it all came down to it, I still had trouble coming to terms with the fact that I was no longer human. But there was still the notion that despite having apparently been so extensively altered, I didn't feel the slightest bit different. My change in body mass was about the only thing that I could even notice. None of their extensive testing seemed to have any effect on anything but my appearance. Even so, I _had_ been altered. I wasn't sure what to make of that.

"There's only one path for you to take now. There was only ever one path that you'd _want _to take. After all, if things ran their course you'd probably be searching for a way to kill the demon on your own right about now anyway."

I fell silent. His point was completely valid. I was being used as a tool. This man likely had some ulterior motive to preserving the sea of fragments, hence why Nero was with him in the first place. But if I was to have any hope of finally escaping from the fate I had been dealt one time too many, I would have to cooperate.

"I just need to know something."

"What's that?"

"Who are you? How do you fit into all of this? And why do you look like Keiichi?"

"Hm… Shit, you with your difficult questions…" The man trailed off. "…Well, I'll spare the details for now. I'm not exactly able to give you most of them anyhow – "

"His name's Asty and he's not all that different from me." Nero suddenly spoke up.

"…Fine, let's just settle for that. I'm known by more names than you could possibly imagine, but as far as you need to know my name is –"

"Asty!" Nero shouted with her false enthusiasm.

The man shouted off a curse at Nero before continuing.

"…For now, you shall know me as Astaroth. That's about as much as I'm going to tell you. As for how I fit into things – I might've been responsible for creating the demon in the first place."

"You…created it?"

"It's a pretty long story. But I've got to set things right, even though I'd really wish there were a way around it."

The name was a bit familiar to me – an Astaroth was classified as a prince of Hell. If this man held any similarity with the sort of Astaroth that I was familiar with, there was no doubt in my mind that he was far beyond my level in terms of sheer power. Even if I had a valid reason to, I doubted that I could've walked out of this plan of his – at least with my head still intact.

Now that I knew this man's identity, there was only one other stranger I needed details on. The man – the man who led the Okinomiya mob.

"So that strange man – was he the demon?"

Astaroth sighed and shook his head. "I keep forgetting that you failed the test… No, he wasn't. At that point all you were watching was straight up symbolism."

"But who was he?" I also wanted to know why Astaroth had gone out of his way to let me know not to go anywhere near him. In retrospect it was a fine idea. Unfortunately things didn't go the way I planned.

"…You really want me to say his name?"

"I'd rather know who he is before I –"

"Alright, alright…" He cleared his throat before continuing. "Saturos Gigari Ayana XIV… He's a former vessel of mine, from back when he was seventeen. He was a _scary_ son of a bitch when he was seventeen. I mean – you saw what he did with that grenade."

Nero suddenly scoffed. "As if that wasn't a mouthful a thousand years ago… It's not even completely Japanese. I don't know how you _ever_ got anyone to say that whole thing back when you were –"

With another heartfelt swear sent in Nero's general direction, he continued. "He has, however, settled on Saturn Anne in recent years. So that's what he goes by these days."

I decided to bypass the strangeness of the name and went right to the point. "But why is he suddenly there? And aren't you… Not really human? And why does he –"

"Hey, one at a time… Just because I'm not human doesn't mean that I can't have a human backup. I'm actually not sure why my human vessel appeared to begin with, honestly. I don't exactly have control over him. But given how much of a cryptic ass the person who _does_ is, I'm pretty sure he's there for a reason. But you're on your own on that one."

This was far too much information for me to take in all at once. But it would seem that the man before me and some mortal alternate of himself – who looked less like Keiichi and more like Riku Furude – were both entirely different entities. And furthermore, there was yet another external force keeping tabs on what was going on.

This whole situation was far more serious than I ever could've imagined. At this point, if there was even a small doubt in my mind about the severity of the demon, it would've been gone.

I still wasn't even sure why these two people took on the physical forms of my close friends. But Nero's sudden outburst from before – she had said that Astaroth wasn't all that different from her. Nero held the appearance of Rena, while Astaroth held the appearance of Keiichi. Both of them were far too different from my two friends to have been anything like them, but there had to be some significance in their appearances. At this point I might not have been all different from the two of them myself.

But speaking of Nero –

What was _her_ role in all of this?

"Moving on, now that everyone here is up to speed, we can get started." Astaroth interrupted my thoughts.

"Finally…" Nero sighed. "I was wondering when you'd actually explain what it was you wanted me to do."

"…You followed him without at least finding that out?" I questioned her obvious lack of logic.

"Hey, all I knew was that I got to run around and chop up some folks. That's all you really need to bribe me with."

I didn't take too kindly to that statement, but while I had my stare off with Nero Astaroth snapped his fingers once again. In the air above him, a large dark portal of some sort suddenly emerged.

"What's that?" I immediately question.

"You see, in order to actually complete the testing and reinforce you into your current form, we needed some highly advanced machinery – the sort of stuff that back in 1983 was about fifty years off. So, since we couldn't bring the machinery to you, we brought you to the machinery."

Suddenly the portal flared and spat dark purple flames that spread across the room like wildfire. I took a step backward, unsure of what was happening. Nero and Astaroth, on the other hand remained perfectly calm.

Eventually the flames grew to the point where I caught fire myself – but the human body wasn't supposed to catch fire, so how –

In a few moments, my vision grew hazy as the dark purple flame enshrouded me. I could no longer feel the Velvet Death that had latched itself onto me, nor could I feel much of anything else.

Astaroth and Nero, up until the last moment I was able to see them, seemed completely uncaring, even though they themselves had been set aflame much like I had.

And in a few seconds, I was in a different place entirely.

It was hard to describe – at first I felt as if I was nowhere at all. I had regained all feeling and could once again feel the Velvet Death, which still seemed to be welded to my hand, but my vision still seemed to have stopped functioning. There was no ceiling above me. There were no walls around me. In all directions there was nothing but black. I could feel some surface beneath me, but I couldn't see what it was. It was very much like having your eyes closed, although mine were wide open. But as the seconds went by, that impervious black seemed to take on a dim glow. My eyes grew wider as I tried to perceive whatever it was that was causing that strange glow.

The dim glow grew stronger as what I believed to be small shimmering lights of some sort descended upon me, brushing against my skin and seemingly melting much like snow. When these lights drew close to me, they appeared to be small crystals, shaped in incredibly complex and unnatural patterns. They fell from an otherwise empty sky – there was no sun or moon, making the crystals the only light source around me.

Eventually, enough of the lights filled the sky above me that I could see more clearly. I stood, finding that there was in fact some sort of a large silver platform below me that seemed to stretch off into the distance. My vision was still somewhat limited and so I couldn't see that far off, but around me were large silver structures that seemed suspended in the air. I couldn't tell what they were – they seemed to be made of the same silver metal that composed the platform beneath me, but they were arranged in incomprehensible patterns that didn't look like any shape I was familiar with.

But further above those structures was another object suspended in the air, this one only visible when one of the shimmering crystals passed over it. It was a large silver clock, built very much like a grandfather clock, only with jagged spikes protruding from each side of the base. The clock itself was just as incomprehensible, as the roman numerals displayed on the front were in no numeric order and seemed to go far past twelve – as far as a hundred, even. The inner circuitry, however was by far the most incomprehensible – but the most disturbing as well, as the clocks innards were composed of what seemed to be metallic limbs arranged in sporadic fashions.

Suddenly, off in the distance, two massive lights suddenly snapped on, revealing what seemed to be a massive silver hourglass with no sand inside that sat upon a circular platform at the far end of the one I was on.

In that instant, Astaroth appeared at my side, with Nero fading into the background with him.

I didn't even react to their sudden arrival – I was too stunned by this place around me. Despite everything I've ever seen through my centuries of living, I wasn't prepared for anything quite like this.

"Where….Where am I?" I murmur to no one in particular.

"Welcome to my domain – the Akarana Corridor." Astaroth announced. "This is a fragment offset from most of the others – a fragment where time has no meaning. For the last twenty-five millennia this has been my place of residence – a place removed from time altogether."

"Removed from time…?"

"I didn't get it either. I still don't. I wouldn't dwell on it too much if I were you." Nero chimed in.

"That aside –" Astaroth tried to regain control of the conversation. "It's from here that all of this is possible – from this dimension, it's possible to track down and pursue the demon."

"Are you sure of that? From a place like this?"

"Of course. It took a thousand years or so, but I managed to narrow the demon down to a single fragment. All that you need to do is return to that exact point in time – which conveniently enough happens to be the June of 1983 – and go for it."

I had a feeling that he wasn't exaggerating that time frame at all. This man was certainly something else – I was fairly certain that he was the one who had broken up our battle, and so he was most definitely far from human. He was most definitely on a scale of power that I couldn't ever understand. He'd killed Nero instantly with no effort involved, and he'd nearly broken me in a much similar fashion. On top of all of that, he was essentially a time traveler – something you'd only hear about in science fiction. But despite all of that something vital to this clearly there was seemingly missing from the equation – I wasn't sure why, but he was clearly holding back quite a deal of his power. And all the while, he looked like Keiichi – I still wasn't sure what to make of that whole idea.

But then something fairly important occurred to me.

While I knew what my role in all of this was, there was still the matter of how to go about killing the demon. While the Velvet Death was a powerful weapon, it was only capable of slaying mortal creatures. The demon was beyond its scope – although it could effectively defend against it, it could never kill it. And once that line of thought crossed my mind, I came to a rather alarming realization.

Astaroth, even with all the strength he clearly possessed, was unable to subdue the demon. Unless there was something that outright prevented him from slaying it, this demon was theoretically stronger than he was.

And if that was true – was there even any point to trying? If this demon was that indestructible, then was there any sense to fighting back? It would take more than a miracle to slay the demon, even _with _a weapon that I believed existed for the sole purpose of slaying it. And the way things were now, we were fresh out of miracles, and on top of that there was no witch to bestow them upon us.

"But what I don't understand is… If you've gotten this far, why haven't you defeated the demon yourself?"

"What, you think I have the capacity for something like that?" He tried to downplay his more than obvious strength. But it seemed that he had me figured out – he knew I didn't take that response with an ounce of seriousness.

"The demon fought Riku Furude once in the past, correct? What of the sword he used?"

"The Demon Slayer Kusanagi…?" Astaroth trailed off. He was almost grimacing as he seemed to be thinking about something fairly unpleasant.

"Yes – that weapon seemed perfectly capable of slaying demons. What of that weapon? Whatever happened to it? Can't it be used to kill the demon?"

"I've got news for you –" Astaroth shifted his coat, allowing me to see what he held beneath it – it was a sheath. And I was fairly certain that what it contained was none other than the weapon I had asked about. But upon taking a closer look – it seemed to have been empty. "It'd probably be a good idea, if not for the simple issue of the sword being missing."

"Missing? But how?"

"Let's just say that your ancestors weren't the best at keeping track of their rare valuables."

"It was _misplaced_?"

"Misplaced isn't the word I'd use for it. To keep the sword a complete secret they drew all attention away from it – including their own. At some point it was… Grave-robbed. I'd rather not go into how I ended up with the sheath."

"Heh… Sure you don't. Because _you _were probably the one who did the grave robbing. Not sure how you screwed that up." Nero snickered. Astaroth didn't even react to her that time. I decided to do the same – everything that came out of her mouth was likely baseless anyway.

"Then is it even possible?"

"There's one way – and one way only. That is to expose the demon for what it really is – expose the truth to the outside world. Differentiate the fact from the fiction. That's the only way you can corner it."

"Differentiate fact from fiction?" I wasn't following very well here.

"And fiction from fanfiction…" Nero sighed. It looked like she didn't have any interest in this sort of thing in the slightest.

"You have to figure out who the demon is – which human is harboring it. That's the only way to kill it. Sadly, I've broken too many of the universe's rules to qualify for the job myself. So that's why you're here."

That made a bit more sense. So my ultimate goal was to essentially uncover the culprit – the person who was responsible for the killings, as it always used to be. But this time around I had a feeling that Takano wasn't involved.

From the simulation I was put through, it would seem that while Takano finishes the job as she always used to, the actual person responsible for the main selection of killings was completely different and likely had no relation. I would have to find some way to expose this person –

But then it occurred to me. What if this person was one of my friends? Given the previous scenario, it was very likely the case – especially if that Saturn Anne wasn't the one involved.

I sighed. There was too much at stake and too much going on at the same time. Amidst growing conflict between Okinomiya and the Sonozaki family, there was a killer on the loose that seemed to interfere with the village's affairs at the worst moments and on top of all of that the Yamainu was still out to get us. Takano's motivation might've been slightly different this time around, given how her interests seemed to have changed significantly, but in the end she still accomplished her ultimate goal – Hinamizawa was wiped out amidst the demon's rampage, and so she attained her self-imposed godhood.

I wondered what Hanyuu would do in this sort of situation. But she was nowhere in sight. I could assume that she'd abandoned me altogether. Even if she hadn't, I had a feeling this was above her head as well.

"So… When are you going to tell me what I'm doing here?" Nero suddenly spoke up.

"Ah. Right." With that, Astaroth proceeded down the platform and towards the massive hourglass. The two of us followed him.

"The two of you – you both have aspirations, don't you?" He suddenly spoke.

"Aspirations?" I questioned.

"You want to achieve something, don't you? After all of this is over, what do you hope to accomplish?"

What I wanted was very definite – I wanted things to go back to the way they were. I wanted to return to that point in time where I had overcome my fate and I could go on and live a normal life. I had decided to once again be human – and that was all I really wanted. I wasn't sure why he needed this clarified – given his direct involvement with me for an extended period of time; he should've known by now what it was that I wanted.

"Hm…" Nero mused for awhile. "I'm not sure what you mean by 'after all of this is over,' Asty."

"You see… As far as I can tell, since the key to defeating this demon is to simply expose its reality, and considering how both of you, unlike me, have corporeal forms in 1983, both of you are capable of killing the demon."

"But then what of the whole project? Did you not need me after all?"

"Don't get me wrong – the demon can only _be_ exposed if you dive into its fragment with that weapon. But ultimately its anyone's game."

"And why is that?"

"The Velvet Death is essentially a symbol – a symbol that you're the original Rika Furude. With that, your chances of succeeding will be a bit higher than zero this time around. But once you've been able to expose it, it doesn't really matter who kills it."

It made sense. Perhaps the point of the whole project was to create a Serika that would be capable of using that scythe. But there was still the issue with Nero – she didn't seem interested in much of anything, let alone risking her life to slay a demon. And yet she seemed to be a sort of insurance for Astaroth – if I failed, she would probably succeed. If she were up to the task.

"And why would I give a damn about any of this crap?" Nero was actually straight to the point for once.

"You see… When the demon is defeated, the fragments are going to be rewritten. But the problem is that the fragments can't rewrite themselves… You get the idea?"

"So… Whoever kills the demon gets to rewrite the fragments?" Apparently my guess was spot on, as Astaroth nodded in response.

"Right. Every fragment the demon infected will pretty much be at your disposal – you can turn it into whatever you want."

I glanced at Nero – her uncaring and dazed face had tightened up all of a sudden. She was completely silent – she'd changed ever so suddenly.

"So then… Are you both up for it?"

"Count me in." Nero suddenly spoke. "…Sorry, Serika-tan, but I'm not going to pass this up."

"Why? What could you possibly –"

"I thought I already told you – there's a million things I want… And if I have a shot at getting them, I'll be damned if I passed it up."

"But why can't we just come to an agreement on this? Maybe we could –" I'd been trying to suggest that we could essentially have our desires coexist. Sadly, I'd forgotten just how vile the woman I was dealing with was.

"Believe me. It's impossible. What you want and what I want are _very _different things. And if you slack off or fall behind, I'll never even give you the chance to have things your way." She sneered at me –

sneered at me with Rena's face. Every time she did that, I felt like beating her up.

I didn't have a response for her. I simply met her condescending gaze with one of my own. I certainly wasn't going to allow her to win – I could only imagine what sort of horrors she'd unleash. If the things we wanted were truly complete opposites, then there was no doubt in my mind that she would shatter whatever hopes I had of a future.

I had to defeat her – I couldn't let her have her way. If I did – everything would be lost, all in an instant.

While we waged our silent battle, Astaroth snapped his fingers once again. The hourglass began to glow and two small circles appeared on the floor around me, while two small triangles appeared around Nero.

"I think that'll just about do it… You'll both be sent back to 1983 into the fragment I've tracked the demon to. From there – well, you two know the drill. Don't let anyone know you're from another plane of existence, etcetera. I hope you two realize that there probably won't be any second shots at this."

We both nodded, never breaking our eye contact. Nero was still an enigma to me – I didn't know why she of all people had been selected for this sort of deal in the first place, but I didn't have the time for questions now. I had to get to work, the second I was dropped off in the fragment. I could only hope that at whatever point in time the demon had been narrowed down to that it wasn't too late.

The patterns on the floor began to light up. A small burst of steam protruded from them, before a steady stream surrounded me. This was it – in a matter of moments, I would be sent back to Hinamizawa, with one last chance to fix things.

"…One last question." I suddenly spoke.

"Which is?"

"…Does the demon have a name?"

Nero laughed. "What, you're gonna try talking you way out of things? Do you _ever_ learn?"

Astaroth didn't have a similar reaction, however. He seemed to think his answer over for some time before eventually speaking.

"Well, in the Japanese language, there's no equivalent for it – but many years ago, it was known to some as Nebiros."

"Nebiros… I see."

That was all I needed to know. In that instant the steam engulfed me entirely, clouding my vision and all feeling in my body. It was a feeling I was still getting used to – but eventually, it all seemed to subside.

Everything turned to black as I was cast into a deep black void. I knew that once I regained control of my body I would be at my destination – I could only hope that things would be resolvable. But ultimately I knew nothing of where I was headed – only that it was cast into that same curse of the Endless June that I was so used to.

In the end, I knew nothing of my chances of success. But that wouldn't stop me from trying with everything I had left. I wasn't quite human anymore – perhaps that would prove to be more of an advantage than it had seemed to be.

I could only hope that whatever price I had paid that it would all work out in the end. And so I allowed the darkness to take me as I awaited the moment where it would swallow me up completely.

It would only be a matter of time now…

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

So there you have it. For the record, in the initial draft of this chapter, the bit where Serika enters the Akarana Corridor was well past the 12k word mark. Now the whole thing is under the 12k word mark. Just throwing that out there.

*sigh* Alright, time to clarify everything else.

First, there's Saturn Anne's so called 'real' name. It's mainly there for the nonsensical comic relief, but if you mix the letters around you'll actually get a phrase. But good luck trying to figure out what it is.

Second, there's the issue of how the story is going to progress. The story is going to mostly be told through the three episode chapters, while the main chapters will be more like the framework (an inversion of last time). There's going to be a distinct pattern to the main chapters, but unlike last time it works in a fairly linear fashion. They follow Serika and a certain other character in consistent intervals the entire time instead of jumping perspectives, although Nero might have a chapter to herself on occasion. But enough about that.

Third, there's my choice of name for the altered Rika. Here's a bit of 07thExpansion trivia for you – back before Higurashi was ever made, the company primarily did artwork and stuff for this incredibly obscure card game called Leaf Fight (Rena actually first appeared as a card from this game). Among the cards they drew for the series, there was a mecha musume styled character that went by the name Serika. She was very close in design to Rika, and it's very possible that she was a prototype for her. So there. That's where that name came from.

Anyway, there's still the next main chapter to post. From there, the second arc will be underway. Expect that to go up a whole lot sooner than this one went up.

Oh, and one last thing. In the previous chapter, when I established the rules for the overall culprit, I mentioned how you might be able to reason out more than one culprit/ a different culprit for some of the scenarios, and in the end the one with the most killings should be considered the culprit. But the way things turn out, **the overall culprit is capable of every murder that classifies as a culprit's murder. **That being said, remember how **only the detective and their assistant can verify a dead body. **

So that's all for now... Keep on reading. And whoever is reading this without reviewing (and I know there's at least a few of you), please, just review. You can even be anonymous and I'd still accept it. Don't be afraid to comment.


	6. C Chapter: Weep for the Sun

_**Author's Note**_

So here we go – the last really long chapter. This is the last of the introductory phase, so from here on out it's all plot progression and no development – well, there's going to be development, of course, but you get the idea.

This chapter actually has a number of OCs. Only one of them – well, two – are particularly vital to the story. I basically throw out names just for the sake of throwing out names. I don't want _too _many unnamed characters here.

So here's one last recap on the pattern for these chapters – the first main chapter will consist of a story like this one, followed by the three, followed by the continuation of Serika's story, and from there it'll loop.

So now, without any further adieu, enjoy what I believe to be the… easiest (?) chapter I've written for this story so far.

* * *

_**C Chapter – Weep for the Sun**_

_I sinned once, and so I sinned again.  
__I left you behind. Alone and confused.  
__I abandoned you without hesitation.  
__But where you now stand I can no longer reach you.  
__Without a miracle, you will never survive.  
__There is no hope left.  
__You can never succeed.  
__You will never move on.  
__And the fault is mine.  
__I betrayed you.  
__I failed you.  
__I left you for dead.  
__And now, at dusk  
__When the end is nigh  
__There is but one thing to do –  
__That is to tell you the story.  
__The story of your ancestors.  
__And how I betrayed them long before you._

* * *

_The Onigafuchi Shrine (June 1__st__)  
__Riku Furude (Age: 10)_

There was once a time when the world wasn't afraid. There was a time when there was only law and chaos, which at the time were nothing more than two sides of the same coin. A time when good and evil simply had no meaning. There was a time, once, when light and darkness simply existed – a time long before yours and mine.

And at that time, in a world that now seems so far removed from our own, there was a balance in nature. The world had simply been set in motion by two entities that became that very balance. A balance formed by an eternally consistent bond maintained throughout the world. A bond that maintained a cycle of life and death, with the world collectively working to maintain itself. Sacrifices were made and trails were overcome to ensure that the world simply remained – a protective barrier, built to protect itself. The world simply existed, as it would continue to exist. And all along, nurturing that bond of collective existence was the sun – the entity my people came to know as Amaterasu.

There was a time when Amaterasu was a benevolent being. Born to help maintain the cycle of life and death, she presided over all of nature, and ultimately determined who lived and who died. But such a concept was far from demented or evil – such a concept was part of life. Death was, and to an extent still is, just as much a part of life as life is a part of death. It was something that nature accepted and handled by simply creating more life.

But then we came along – humanity. An existence that upset this balance. Why we came into being – only Amaterasu would have known for sure. But as humanity grew and grew, the world began to lose its balance. As humans became more advanced, the balance of law and chaos finally shifted. And so law would attempt to usurp chaos – and vice versa. And when the two forces collided, life and death were caught in-between. The Original Gods were set against each other to maintain the balance. And in the end the balance was kept – but law and chaos both demanded death to do so, and so death prevailed. And as life began to more strongly reject death, death began to do the same. And so chaos would once again shift the balance. A desire to live over a desire to die – the world became afraid of death. Life began to combat death – and so death began to combat light. And so demons were born – and with them, death swept the world away. Life and death continued their endless struggle to dominate the world, and the endless cycle that grips our world was born.

But even then, the entire world wasn't completely corrupted. There was at least some semblance of purpose in humanity – that was the only saving grace we had. At some point, Amaterasu took pity on these, the brightest of the human race, and started to communicate with them to ensure that they would live on. Amaterasu became the beacon that lit the otherwise darkened earth – and humanity adored her.

To communicate with humans, Amaterasu had to find a work-around for a very simple issue – it was simply impossible for her to directly communicate with mortals on the earth. In order to even make the human race aware of her existence, she created messengers who would descend from the heavens and deliver her will unto her people. These messengers were her loyal servants – the Yatagarasu, a race of crows that took on human shapes when amongst humankind.

These messengers spread far and wide. There were only twenty-four of them to begin with, but their range was impeccable. The entire land was aware of their presence – and by proxy, Amaterasu's presence. Humanity was made aware of its mother, and so hope for a future where death no longer presided over life managed to persevere through the years.

The Yatagarasu were entities that were born during that time – that time when the world wasn't afraid. They were supposedly wise beyond their visual years, could read your mind, and could answer any question you asked them. And back when I was nothing more than a child, it was practically my life's dream to actually meet one.

You see, I grew up as the male heir to the Furude clan. And when I was younger, I had practically all the time in the world to think these sorts of things over. My early childhood wasn't the brightest in the world – at the time, I was exposed to the whole concept of death at a very early age. Both of my parents passed away for reasons I was never directly told until much later in my life. I never let it show in public, but in the aftermath the whole idea of death scared me fairly badly. I knew it was a completely natural thing, but even so there was a part of me that wasn't sure what to make of the whole idea. But at one point I heard about the Yatagarasu – the entire idea sat with me very well when I was five. A wise being, shaped like a crow, capable of answering anything I asked it?

Of course I could only dream about what I would ask a Yatagarasu – that is, until I was about ten years old, when I met one in person.

It was at the start of June – I wasn't really aware of what was even going on at the time, but when I woke up that morning I knew something was up. No one told me a thing, but the villagers were acting different from normal. And the only way I could figure out what they were acting up about was to pretend I didn't notice.

I went around town, looking for some sort of clue. I generally blended in well with the villagers, but for some odd reason today I was constantly being called out to by random passersby who suddenly took an interest in how I was doing. I couldn't be discreet at all, but I usually didn't give up that easily.

My efforts were all in vain, though. There wasn't much I could find out – all I knew was that someone fairly important was visiting the village. In the end, after my rather pitiful attempts at espionage ended in failure, I spent the duration of the day inside. It wasn't a usual practice of mine, but I wasn't exactly in the mood at the time.

I'd been wandering back towards the shrine when I heard a rather familiar voice call out to me.

"Riku!" I turned to find a rather familiar face standing off to the side under a tree and waving to me enthusiastically with a million dollar smile plastered on her face. Her hair and eyes were both a very distinct shade of red which made her stand out – and if you didn't know a thing about her it might've made her seem a bit intimidating.

But I know quite a bit about her – a bit too much for my own good.

I sighed. "Oh, it's you. And what did I say about just calling me that?"

"Hey, that's no way to greet a girl! And what, do you really expect me to call you 'Furude-san'?"

"Since when did you demand special treatment?"

"And I was worried about you… You're not acting weird at all!"

"Neither are you. Unfortunately."

She pouted, making some sort of an irritated noise as she ran over to me before she was back to smiling like an idiot.

This airhead of a girl was Chinami Okazaki, an old friend of mine. She was a year or so older than I was, but despite how children tend to make a big deal out of that sort of thing it never really mattered all that much to her. I'd first encountered her the day my parents were buried – she'd somehow snuck into the shrine in an attempt to bring me outside. It didn't really work all that well, but I gave her credit for trying and that was pretty much how we met.

In truth, I was always light in the friends department. I spent more than enough time in the shrine, and despite how in my earlier years I'd dreaded spending hours trying to make sense of some of our family's old scrolls I'd gotten very much used to it. I still went outside and such, but the whole shrine thing was a serious turn off for most people – Chinami, on the other hand, was more than happy to visit the shrine on a regular basis.

But despite all of that I kept a strict uncaring attitude whenever I was around her. She was the sort of girl who wouldn't _ever_ leave me alone if I gave her too much attention. Even so, we got along just fine. It's too bad she couldn't be just a little bit more normal.

"Did you hear? There's someone important visiting the village today." She whispered as if it were something secretive.

"Yeah, I know." I tried to play it off. If she knew I was interested, she'd probably try something stupid.

"…You wanna know who it is?"

My face lit up as I suddenly took that much more interest in what she was saying. Looks like she was a step ahead this time.

"Wait, you mean you know who it is?"

She giggled slightly before nodding her head. She then placed her mouth almost completely against my ear before whispering something into it.

"If you go out with me, I'll tell you!"

I sighed. I suddenly remembered – this was Chinami I was dealing with. The fact that I even elected to take anything she said with any seriousness was a sign that I'd let my guard down. This was one of her most peculiar gimmicks – even though we were both still kids, she took almost every opportunity she had to hit on me. Looking back on it, I almost wish she'd have kept it going into our later years… I'd actually wish she kept a lot of things going into our later years.

"You're going to have to try harder than that."

She pouted. "Aw… I was so close, too…"

"Don't you have anything better to do with yourself on a day like today?"

She shook her head vigorously. "Nope. Everyone else is staying inside today… That's why I came here!"

"Oh, I see. So you went looking for me as a last resort."

"Of course not! I thought you'd be busy."

"Well, I _would_ be busy. But Chiyo-san's being awfully quiet about things today."

The Chiyo-san in question is actually a caretaker of mine. The main branch of the family was small enough to begin with, and with both of my parents dead some serious issues came up. Naturally, as they're scattered to the far corners of the land, the rest of the family didn't want to have to deal with an orphaned child on top of that, so an outsider was put in charge of dealing with me until I was capable enough of managing myself.

"Hm… Actually, it's funny. Nana-chan's parents wouldn't tell her anything about today. Neither did Shu's, or Hanako's…" Chinami went down her list of friends, enlightening me to the fact that I wasn't the only kid in the village that didn't have a clue as to what was going on. It must've been some collective effort on the parents' part.

I sighed, admitting my defeat. I didn't even feel like going through the trouble of snooping around today – much to Chinami's disappointment.

"Well, whatever it is, I doubt it's all that important anyway." I turned away from her. "I'll be seeing you."

"…Riku." She suddenly spoke as I continued my path down the road.

Ah, I hated it so much when she said my name like that – it got under my skin each and every time.

"What?" I spoke, trying to hide it.

"…Are you sure you're alright?"

"What're you saying?" I turned to face her.

Her face was far more serious now. Her red eyes tried to pierce through me, as if she were trying to stare through my very soul. I hated it – I hated it so much whenever she did it. Because it meant she thought I was hiding something from her – and whenever I actually _was_ hiding something from her, she'd always get it out of me.

"You know what today is, right?" She spoke softly.

Ah, today? Was it really that time of the year already?

It was June 1st, wasn't it? It was the anniversary of my parents' death. That would explain why the villagers were suddenly so interested in how I was doing. Ah, I understand – Chinami must've caught wind of my walk around the village this morning. And knowing how it was technically a break in my routine she came by to see if something was eating at me.

In truth, my parents' death was _always _eating away at me. Only because the concept of death was always such a scary concept.

"Oh, thanks for reminding me. I'll go burn incense later or something."

I turned away to continue walking, but at that point Chinami had already latched onto my arm.

"Hey, what're you –"

"Shh…" She suddenly whispered. "…If you're going to cry, do it on aunt Chinami's shoulder."

"Like hell." I slipped my arm out of her grasp. In most cases saying something like that might've seemed a tad insensitive – coming from Chinami, though, all it meant was that she was trying to make me more uncomfortable than depressed.

I ran off without giving her as much as another glance. I was still trying to figure out if my face had gone red from the physical contact or not.

The remainder of that morning was spent in my room, mulling over my lack of progress, my sudden reminder that my parents were dead, and Chinami's bubbly personality. At some point later into the day, I was disturbed from my time of solitude in my room by Chiyo-san who'd pretty much ignored me all morning.

"Furude-sama…" She called out to me from behind the sliding door to my room. It seemed she'd noticed my odd behavior. In truth, whenever I shut myself in my room it was because something was eating me. Back when my parents died I was still fairly young, but I could somewhat recall shutting myself in my room for two whole days. "Don't you want to go outside? It's not healthy to stay in on a day like today."

"I'm fine the way I am. Just go away." I was still a bit bitter from having been reminded about my parents' death and what line of thought remembering it always seemed to bring up.

"You can't spend the whole day indoors. It's bad for appearance. Your family certainly won't approve of –"

"Yeah, I know. They won't approve of any sign weakness, especially on a day like today." I repeated a phrase I was very used to. I was always put off by this day, and the rest of the family was apparently put off by my behavior.

"You must honor your parents' passing, Furude-sama. Your uncle will not appreciate it if you kept going on like this."

"Enough about my uncle… If I listened to a word that man says I'd be disowned by now."

"Do not insult your elders, Furude-sama."

Unable to deal with being scolded any longer, I stormed out of my room via the window. I had enough of a poor history with my family that I didn't need Chiyo-san going on like this. I left the shrine and headed off into the woods. I wasn't really sure where I was headed, but I wasn't really in the mood to go anywhere in particular, so it would have to do. I continued into the woods, hoping that I wasn't going to be followed. This was a bit over the top – the woods were relatively forbidden, mainly because kids my age can get lost fairly easily. But I didn't really pay the rules any serious amount of mind today – I was just sick and tired of everything.

Eventually I made it far enough into the woods that I was fairly certain I was lost. But that didn't stop me – I kept on going deep into the woods, with no real intention of stopping. Of course at the time I really didn't perceive how much of an issue getting completely lost would have been, but in the end it didn't matter –

It didn't matter because at this particular point in time I wasn't alone in the forest.

I came to a stop near a large overturned tree. I'd been running for about fifteen minutes straight without rest, which already was well past my usual limit. I leaned against the tree, catching my breath. But as I did so I heard a strange rustling. Off to the side there was what appeared to be a relatively short human figure concealed by the bushes. I had caught a glimpse of it, but only a glimpse as it took off into the woods, having notice me as well. Without really thinking much about what I was doing I pursued.

There was something off here. No child in their right mind would wander off into the woods. It was practically taboo to even consider such a thing, even amongst children my age. Of course there was the occasion where some stupid kid, thinking they could act tough, would go into the forest, only to come out screaming for their parents a few minutes later. Case in point, this person clearly was no child of Onigafuchi. But where would he have been from…?

It then hit me. Perhaps _this _was the so-called special guest the village was hosting? If that were the case, then they might not have even known how dangerous this area was.

I continued to pursue the figure through the trees, unsure of how far ahead of me it was. It was certainly fast – not that many people could keep up with someone like me, while in this case someone was going _faster _than I could go.

Eventually, I made it into a clearing. I could finally see the figure in front of me that much more clearly. There wasn't a doubt in my mind – this was indeed a child, but it wasn't any child I'd ever seen before.

"Wait!" I called out. "Are you lost?"

The child acme to a halt – it seemed that all I had to do was talk to him. How about that?

"I know the way back. If you got lost, I can help you."

The child turns to face me – it's a boy, not any older than me. He appears very alert and fairly scared – it would seem that he was lost after all. His eyes seemed to shimmer with that unfocused look that little kids tended to have, and as far as his posture went he was somewhat slouched over. His overall appearance gave off a very demure and frightened vibe – there probably wasn't an ounce of self esteem in his whole body. His hair was jet black, as were his robes.

But what made _me_ feel a bit out-of-place and scared were his eyes – his eyes were a very vivid shade of amber. They lit up much like the sun – and the longer I stared at him, the less the shimmer appeared to be a shimmer of uncertainty and the more it appeared to be a shimmer of some far away light.

I knew almost as soon as we had made eye contact – he wasn't human. His eyes were too extravagant for any human being. This was my first encounter with an entity that wasn't mortal - and once I realized that, I felt like running away.

"You…"

He seemed to quiver under my stare – it was funny. I was the one who was supposed to be scared in a situation like this one. Yet he was clearly scared senseless of me. It was perhaps because of that simple fact that I was able to actually speak to him.

"…Who are you?"

"…"

"Um…Where are you from?"

The boy's eyes darted to the side – he tried his best not to look at me. Was he trying to pretend that I wasn't there? I almost started to relax – if not for those eyes of his, he'd be no different from a frightened four-year-old.

"It's alright… I said I would help you, didn't I? You don't have to… To be afraid of me." I stammered. Acting like that, there was no way this guy would so much as make a peep.

But much to my surprise, he actually spoke.

"…Why are you here?" He asked in a very soft, demure voice. I wasn't sure why that was the first thing that came to his mind, but then again he wasn't human, as hard as it was at this point to believe.

"Uh… I was out here because… Well, I just sorta came out here."

"Just…Sorta?"

"I was in a bad mood, you see and… And I just came out here to vent, I guess."

The boy studied my face with about as intense a stare as I believed his face could express before finally responding.

"You're lying."

"…Huh?" The look on my face must've been priceless. I most _certainly _hadn't been expecting something like that.

"You came out here because you were scared." He explained, forming the longest sentence he'd spoken so far. "You were scared, so you ran away."

"S-Scared? What makes you think I was scared?"

"You were thinking about bad things. You're afraid of thinking about them. So you ran out here to forget."

Was that how it went? Maybe so. I had become a bit fussy after being put through the usual spiel about my parents' anniversary – maybe that was all it came down to? But more importantly – how did this kid know about _any_ of that?

I then remembered once again – he wasn't human. He wasn't human and I constantly had to remind myself of that. I began to wonder – maybe his attitude was all a front, so stupid kids like me would let their guard down?

"Who are you?" I asked him rather bluntly.

He hesitated to answer. "…I'd like to know who you are first."

I sighed. Now he was making demands? Did he have any idea of how a normal conversation was supposed to go? I didn't think so, although the fact that he wasn't human probably had something to do with that.

"Uh… I'm –"

And in that moment a shrill voice cried out from somewhere behind me.

"Riku!" It was a familiar scream. All too familiar at that.

"Oh _no_…" I sighed. Of all the possible times that Chinami were to rear her ugly face, this was without a doubt the _worst_ time. Chinami's bubbly personality and practically inhuman exuberance would doubtlessly drive this boy away. And just when I was making progress…

"…Riku?!" The boy suddenly gasped. "…Are you Riku Furude?"

I turned back towards him, more shocked by the simple fact that he hadn't taken off yet than by his apparent familiarity with my identity.

"Uh, yeah… And, uh, if I were you I'd take a step or two back right now."

He looked at me with some confusion apparent on his face – but once Chinami came into view he took my advice as she came running straight towards me, planning to knock me over with our combined wten. It was a standard last-ditch move on her part – either I sidestepped and caused her to crash into something nearby, or she hit her intended target and got to glomp me for a good fifty seconds before I could shake her off.

In this instance, I managed to sidestep. Unfortunately, the 'something nearby' happened to be our immortal friend.

"_Chinami!_" I shouted, wincing as I anticipated the worst case scenario.

But oddly enough, despite how she had clearly crashed into him, he remained standing. Chinami ran right into him, but he seemed to have completely stopped her with his arms. He was visually shaken, but despite how Chinami had crashed into him at speeds that would've taken me down in an instant he'd taken the full force like a stone wall.

"Ooh… That was a soft tree, but still…" Chinami moaned, regaining her footing and rubbing her head. She then looked up, finally noticing that she'd crashed into someone as opposed to something. She gave him a very confused look, blinked several times, and then smiled broadly at him. "Oh, hi! I'm Chinami! What's your name?"

I sighed. Let me remind you all that I'm actually the younger one here, you know, just in case you forgot. I wouldn't blame you _at all _if you did.

Needless to say, the boy didn't know how to react to her at first – if I were in his position I wouldn't know how to respond to… that either. But eventually Chinami's radiance overpowered him and he took several steps backward. I almost thought he was going to run off entirely.

Chinami gave him another confused look. "What's wrong?"

"Chinami, just back off, will you?"

She suddenly remembered that I was there. "Oh, Riku! There you are." She suddenly gave me an angry look. "Why'd you run off like that? And why are you here of all places?!"

"I should be asking you that! You know you're not supposed to come out here!"

"But I was just following you!"

We both went back and forth like that for awhile as I tried to get Chinami to understand the gravity of the situation. But as usual, she was being too thick-headed to understand that she'd just rammed into our supposed honored guest and focused more on how I'd suddenly gone missing in the woods and how worried she was and basically everything that _didn't matter_ right at the moment.

The boy stared at us dumbfounded for a while. But as we continued to bicker he seemed to lighten up a bit.

At one point, both of us were stopped by the sudden sound of laughter. We turned to the boy, finding that he'd broken out into a small, yet loud, round of laughter. It was our turn to stare dumbfounded. Eventually, he realized we were staring and he shut his mouth, his face red with embarrassment. It seemed he was perfectly fine – it seemed that Chinami had been miraculously fortunate for once in her life.

"Oh…Um…I'm sorry, it's just…"

"It's understandable. Not hat many people can look Chinami in the eye and not start laughing on the spot." Chinami gave some disapproval noise in response, but I chose to ignore her for the moment.

"No, it's just…you two were funny."

"Funny? How so?"

He seemed to still be in good spirits as he went on. "You seem to get along so well – and you're insulting each other all the time."

"All the time…? This is just an isolated incident…"

"But that's not true… You two do this sort of thing all the time. But I've never seen this kind of thing in person." He smiled softly before looking towards Chinami. "…You must really care about each other, don't you?"

Chinami nodded vigorously while I wasn't as poised to answer.

"To think…Riku Furude, with a human girl… Well, as long as it lasts…"

I wasn't sure what he'd meant by that, but it suddenly occurred to me once again that I was speaking to someone who isn't human. Perhaps my interaction with Chinami just now was a foreign concept to him – but it seemed that he could guess what my relationship with Chinami was like just based off of that… His intellect, even at the time, was far above mine.

"So…I'm sorry if you can't answer but –"

"Hey…! Your eyes are so…" Chinami suddenly interjected, having finally taken notice of the boy's eyes.

And as he found her staring he looked away awkwardly. "Oh…Right. I should probably let you know that I'm not –"

"Not human, right?" I had a feeling where this was going – this boy was so reluctant to speak to us because he wasn't human. He probably felt that he was alienated to some degree. I'd probably be the same way – it was like suddenly having to move to another home and adjusting to the new land, or going to a new school by your world's standards. The bottom line was that I definitely didn't need him acting like that – especially if he was our honored guest in the village.

"Y-You knew?"

"Those eyes stick out – really badly. It'd be hard not to tell."

"O-Oh… But you seemed so –"

I didn't think cutting him off like this was in my best interest, but at least I could let him know that we had similar mindsets. "I'm not going to judge you because you aren't human… Although I _would_like to know how you know my name. And what yours is."

"Riku…!" Chinami elbowed me in the arm. "Aren't you being a bit too forward? You know he's nervous…" She whispered. "Don't make him feel uncomfortable!"

In that moment Chinami, being five steps ahead and seven steps back as usual, moved from my side to the boy's. I almost objected, considering how badly this could've turned out. She then proceeded to plaster what I believed to be her sweetest smile feasible on her face and talked to him much like a mother would talk to a scared child. And it was starting to work. The boy was slightly less tense as Chinami introduced the two of us in a very tame fashion.

It was at times like this that Chinami amazed me – simply because she never had a mother of her own, nor did she grow up with any sort of a motherly figure. She was like this by nature – and as it was also in her nature, she went around infecting people with her happiness. It wouldn't be very long before the boy was willing to talk with us more – It was something that I believed only Chinami was capable of.

Eventually, it seemed that the boy had been coaxed enough that he was willing to speak.

"I…I really shouldn't, but… You're _that_ Riku Furude, right?"

"I don't know any other Riku Furudes around here, so I assume so."

"Then it should be alright…" His head dropped as he sighed. Apparently he was still mulling over whatever consequence he'd likely be dealt with if he told us his name. I wasn't about to talk him out of it, but I knew Chinami would if she noticed.

Eventually, he looked back up to face me. "…I don't have a name like you two do… That being said, my name is Yatagarasu of the Distant Past."

"…Yata…?!" I suddenly drew a connection.

Yatagarasu – the messenger of Amaterasu, mother to us all. An entity wise beyond their appearance, capable of things that we humans could never imagine in a thousand years. I had no idea what that 'of the Distant Past' thing alluded to, but this demure and frightened boy was a Yatagarasu…?! And to think – I'd actually fantasized about this moment…

It made sense, at least – how he could tell if I was lying. How he could understand me better than I could understand myself. But what I didn't understand was why he was so… different from what I had imagined.

"Woah…!" Chinami beamed at him. "You're a Yatagarasu?!" She was more enamored with him than I expected her to be – it wasn't like the common folk knew enough about inhuman entities to _not_be scared senseless of them, yet Chinami had taken a shin to the Yatagarasu almost instantly. "That's so cool! Can I call you Yata-kun?"

"Y-Yata-kun…?! Uh… I don't see why not…" Yatagarasu trailed off.

"If you're a Yatagarasu…then is it true?" I asked with mild concern apparent in my voice. "C-Can you read my mind?"

He looked at me strangely for a moment before laughing slightly once more. "Come now, Furude-san… You can't believe everything you hear about us."

I sighed with some relief. But now that it came to mind – how much of the legends were true? I had a perfectly good chance of finding out. I was about to continue my questioning, but then it occurred to me –

"Wait, weren't you lost out here?" I brought things back to the matter at hand.

His eyes widened. It seemed he'd forgotten as well. "O-Oh, no… Um, can you bring me to the Furude Shrine? I was supposed to meet my father there, you see."

His…Father? I thought the Yatagarasu were born from Amaterasu… There was a lot I'd wanted to hear about, but first things first – I had to get him back to the village. Luckily enough I knew my way out of the woods, so it wouldn't be too hard to guide him back.

"Right…Chinami, let's get going."

The three of us headed back towards the village. It was a good thing I did know how to get out of the woods – Chinami had no clue where she was, yet she ran after me with no hesitation… It was far too typical of her, but it wasn't something she should be proud of – which she was, by the way. We continued to bicker all the way back to the village – he never told me he did, but I knew that Yatagarasu had way too much fun on that walk back.

Eventually we returned to the shrine. And as I had somewhat expected, there was someone I'd never seen before standing near the entrance with Chiyo-san at his side. I completely ignored the admonishing from Chiyo-san that followed. I was far too focused on how Yatagarasu's relaxed demeanor evaporated into thin air as early on as when he made contact with the tall man standing before us.

I was very quickly intimidated by him – he was roughly seven feet tall, so he already towered over me about three times. I'd seen plenty of coats before, but the one he wore was unlike anything I'd seen – it was made of some black leather material that was complimented by an oddly shaped hat built of the same material. His face was relatively obscured, but his expression was twisted into a very stern and intimidating look. His eyes were identical to Yatagarasu's, although they held the focus of an adult that a child lacked. I had a feeling that if you made this man the least bit angry he'd rip your arms off in an instant. As I drew closer he took his hat off and bowed to me. I almost didn't even notice – I was too stunned by simply beholding the man to do much of anything.

"It's an honor to meet you, Furude-san… I hope this child hasn't given you any trouble." His hair, unlike Yatagarasu's, was a dark shade of grey. This man was old, but judging by his voice he was far from weak and miserly. He then faced Yatagarasu, essentially glaring at him. "Of all the things you should be, _late _certainly isn't one of them."

"I-I'm sorry… The forest was bigger than I thought it would be."

"That doesn't give you any excuse. This young girl went into the forest because you held up her friend. If she hadn't found the two of you, what do you think would have happened?"

Yatagarasu didn't respond. I was considering coming to his defense – but then I took one look at the man and whatever semblance of courage I'd mustered crashed into a million pieces. Chinami, however –

She didn't seem intimidated by the man in the slightest. Oh god, please don't, _please_ don't –

"It wasn't his fault!"

_God dammit Chinami…_

The man looked at her with a small amount of confusion apparent in his expression.

"I went running after Riku because he went into the forest. I would've done the same thing no matter how long he took. It wasn't Yata-kun's fault."

_You didn't just call him that in front of his father I swear Chinami I'm going to –_

"Is this true?" He turned to me. But I had a feeling he already knew the answer. But if he did, then why press me like this?

I nodded my head. "Chinami's first instinct is to act irrationally. I'm sure she would've done what she did no matter what." I half expected to hear a protest from Chinami, although it seemed that she could read the mood of the situation. At least a little.

The man nodded his head. "Very well… True to yourself and your loved ones… It seems you are as I've heard, Furude-sama." He bowed once again. "I do not have a name as you and your kind do…That being said, I am Yatagarasu of the Furthest Past."

"I-It's an honor to meet you." I bowed back. I was still reeling over how well that whole situation had turned out. Although I wasn't sure why he'd attributed Chinami as one of my loved ones, but then again who knows what he meant by that?

But still – two Yatagarasu in one day… I wondered if this would keep up.

"Moving on – I have informed the rest of your family about the plans for this evening, so you are all that remains. I am here on… very selective business. My son, on the other hand, is here for his training."

"Training?"

"I'm going to replace my father… And take his place as the Yatagarasu of this province."

"Although at this rate, I wonder…" The elder Yatagarasu trailed off. He was far too hard on his son – if I had a father like him, I'd probably be just as uninspired and scared of everything. "But moving on, you are to meet your family at the Main Hall this evening. My business with your family very much involves you."

"Okay…I'll be there."

With that, the elder Yatagarasu turned to leave, with his son trailing behind. Chinami almost went after him but I restrained her – we'd definitely see him again, but right now wasn't the time. I decided to let things sit the way they were – I'd get the full story when this evening came.

In the meantime, Chinami more or less wouldn't stop bugging me. With everything that had happened I had forgotten how whenever I came out of the forest she would always try to search me for injuries. Apparently she hadn't. I'd already complimented her enough today – she should know not to push her luck. Although all of those compliments had been part of my internal dialogue… They still should've counted!

But eventually it came time for the family to meet. I'd tried to let Chinami have her way with me – within reason – for as long as possible before I had to go on to the Main Hall. Of course her apparent capacity to read my mind led me to have to spend about fifteen minutes convincing her not to come. I was far too nervous about this meeting for my own good.

And why? Because the elder Yatagarasu had requested me specifically to show up. In all situations, if the heir to any given clan was not yet of age, they would essentially be left out of the clan's dealings altogether. I was already pushing the boundaries of that rule as it was, but now I was being called upon? By a total stranger, none the less? A total stranger who certainly wasn't ignorant to that custom? A total stranger who not only wasn't human, but was an emissary of Amaterasu herself?

The more I actually thought about it, the more I wished I could curl up into a ball and wait until this had all passed by for me to come out. I felt incredibly small in the stream of things – most children my age would feel practically indestructible at this point in their lives, but unfortunately I wasn't at all like other children my age.

I walked to the Main Hall – it was actually a building entirely separate from the Furude Shrine – it was more of a general village meeting hall, situated quite a good deal away from the shrine. The village was fairly large and the number of people who would attend meetings like this one were just as numerous – although the only portion of the family that would even show up to this meeting could probably fit inside the shrine. But the elder Yatagarasu had requested us at the Main Hall, so that was where we would gather.

Upon my arrival, much to my surprise and dismay, I was greeted by my entire family – the whole assortment of bastards and ignorant wenches that made up my aunts, uncles, and some of my older cousins. I found it interesting how the Yatagarasu had managed to gather _all_ of them in such short notice – I was fairly certain that many of my family members had made it as far south as the capital, yet they were all gathered here today.

Of course at this point in time the only ones that even stood out to me were my loathsome uncle Junichiro and my elder cousin Sayaka, although I was pretty sure I had an uncle named Matsuri and an aunt named Kizuna, although they might've both been dead by now. At the time I had at least twenty cousins, although I knew none of them by name – or even face, really.

Unfortunately the clan practically had its own birth and death rate going back then – every female cousin has at least three children, in many cases all from different fathers, although by the end of the year at least one of the kids was either dead or sick and the others end up either raised in practical solitude or handed off to the fathers once they grew the brains to get out of their marriages. And once every five years at least two aunts and three uncles are dead. Of course this includes both blood relatives and relatives otherwise. That seemed to be the pattern since well before I was born – the Furude clan wasn't very condensed those days, and it showed.

That was why I set myself apart from the rest of them, first and foremost – I always wondered how my parents met to begin with. But it seemed like our chunk of the family, the main branch, was a bit better off than the rest. I could see why my parents would've wanted things that way – I don't think it would've been worth helping any of these people.

But my relationship with my uncle and his poor excuse for a daughter set me apart from them even further – they were the two that kept tabs on me specifically. And from the time my parents had died they more or less got me to where I was with as minimal effort as possible. Sayaka was now at least sixteen and, contrary to popular belief in the village, she actually had been with more men than any other female in the family had been… Unfortunately for her, she'd never so much as slept with a single one. She had a long and fairly comical history with all of her potential suitors. And I chose to rub salt in all of her old wounds every time I saw her.

Junichiro is just a bastard. Let's leave it at that. I don't think I've called him 'Oji-san' even once my whole life.

Anyhow, I decided to forgo the usual family greetings and went straight for the hall – I wanted to avoid the usual confrontations, mainly because this meeting wasn't a family formality. But unfortunately, it seemed that Sayaka was purposely seeking me out.

"Oh, there you are. Look who's finally old enough to come to a meeting." I turned to face her – she had that typical smug grin on her face. She hated my guts about as much as I hated her's.

"…Hello, dear cousin."

"You can drop the 'dear cousin' crap now. You're ten, you know… Or did you forget?"

"And how've you been? Oh, and how's Sakura-san been? Or was it Kamijo-kun? Oh, wait, it was Kaname-san, right? I actually liked that one –"

She attempted to strike me across the face, but I backed up in time. "I'll kill you…" She snarled. Her threat was baseless, but even if it was it was completely worth it to push her buttons.

"So where's your father?" I had to be careful not to call him uncle – one slip up and I'd never hear the end of it from Sayaka.

"Not around here, apparently… But more importantly, why were you even allowed to show up?" Apparently she was as curious about my appearance here as I was.

"I don't know."

"Really now?"

"I don't. I swear it."

"The last time you swore me something things didn't work out the way I wanted." She was talking about how I'd sabotaged her plans at sleeping with… Something-kun a few months ago. Of course at the time the whole sexual aspect of it was well over my head.

"I don't think I can get anything out of lying to you this time."

"So you say… I'll be back, so don't go anywhere." With that, Sayaka vanished into the small crowd. I immediately disobeyed her request and went off into the building.

Of course it was at that moment that I ran into my uncle. In truth, I didn't listen to a single word he said – he just went on about how incompetent I was and how I should treat my cousin better, as usual. I still haven't the slightest clue as to how he believed we could get along, but he was certainly trying his damnedest. I'm pretty sure I've met every single one of her boyfriends to date.

And you know what? Instead of devoting more time to these sad sacks later on, I'm going to spoil things for you right now. When I turn nineteen, Junichiro is going to engage Sayaka to me, simply because at that point she'll have driven herself into a corner. And at that point, I already have… her with me, so you can guess how things go with that.

Moving on, I took my seat in the Main Hall. Eventually, after enough time had passed, the rest of the family managed to move itself into the hall. There was still no sign of either Yatagarasu, although at this point all the guests had arrived. Eventually, after sitting and waiting for long enough, the doors to the hall opened and the two people in question entered. The elder Yatagarasu was carrying what seemed to be a long sheath, while the younger simply stood at his side. The two took their places at the far end of the room, directly across from me. They both sat after a short bow and the room fell silent. The elder Yatagarasu placed the long sheath in front of him – which was apparently enough to garner whispers from some of the family members.

"I am honored to have gathered you all here today for this meeting of vital importance… As I am sure you are all aware, I do not have a name as you all do… But with that being said, I am Yatagarasu of the Furthest Past. My son is as I am, but as his title apparently claims he is, he is Yatagarasu of the Distant Past. I am pleased that you were all able to gather as requested."

At this point, as was customary, we all bowed.

"Very well, then… I suppose that I should get right to business. You see… I am aware that very few of you are pleased with the… performance, if you will, of the Yatagarasu Corps."

"You've got that right." One of the uncles called out. "We pay you and your goddess tribute almost weekly, and what have we received in return?" Voices rang out. It seemed that they were agreeing with him.

"I am aware of this… In truth, these have not been the best of times for our lord."

"These haven't been the best of times for _us_." Another voice shouted.

"As the situation has become dire enough – I must commend you for your efforts thus far. You have paid our lord her tribute as requested, but as things are it will never be enough."

"What of the Shogun in the north? Emperor Yamato, even? Can't you _find_ enough?" My uncles voice questioned. More voices agreed with him.

"If this were the case I would not be here today. In truth, our lord still watches over you and protects her with all her might. But she cannot protect you all with your current tribute."

"What are you trying to pull?" A voice shouted. Various voices around the room started shouting. "What of my daughter? If she was being protected then why hasn't she given birth?"

"And what about my daughters? Why are they both dead, if your goddess were protecting them?"

"You ask for tribute? Why doesn't this goddess of yours come down herself and ask? Maybe even beg!"

"Your goddess is a fraud! She's nothing more than a –"

It seemed that our relationship with our supposed 'hope for the future' was far more strained than I realized. But my family members were being... Well, they were being perfectly normal. For them, at least.

"Hey, can you all just shut up?!" I suddenly shouted. Several of the family members tried to disregard me before suddenly remembering that as this was an official meeting that I technically had the strongest amount of power in the room. Junichiro was glaring daggers at me, but I chose to ignore him. "Aren't I the only child in this room? Just listen to what he has to say. You can talk your asses off on your own time!"

"Such vulgarity…! Junichiro, this is your doing!" A relative shouted.

"Don't act as if I have any control over that boy!" He shouted back before staring at me with an even more intense glare, his face fuming red. It seems I'd hit two birds with one stone – I'd shut up the room and embarrassed my uncle as a bonus prize.

"Thank you, Furude-sama… Moving on, to solidify our commitment to the protection of this clan, and assuming you will accept our most humble request, I present to you this." He raised the sheath.

The room remained silent. Apparently they were all thinking it over with serious thought.

"…The blade Kusanagi? In the Furude household?" One of the relatives suddenly spoke up.

"Indeed. This is the sword of legend – the Demon Slayer, Kusanagi. And I offer it to you if you accept our request."

The room remained silent. It didn't seem like any of them were planning on refusing. I had no idea what that weapon was or why it was so important to the family – at the time, of course – but there had to have been _something _special about it if it could move my entire obnoxious family to silence.

"Very well, then. I see we have no disagreement… Furude-sama, please step forward." His eyes locked with mine – he was talking to me. I hesitantly stood and moved over to where he was.

"You're giving it to him?! This is an outrage – he's no more than a boy!" My uncle shouted. A few select voices rang out with him, but most of the room was still silent.

"He is the heir to the clan. That is all that matters." The elder Yatagarasu shot down my uncle's outburst in an instant. Presenting me the sheath in the most ceremonial style, I accepted it and, without really thinking, moved to unsheathe it. My friend, the younger Yatagarasu, had his eyes practically welded to the blade – he wouldn't take his eyes of it or so much as blink.

I slowly lifted the hilt. Swords were a bit much for me at this stage of the game, but I was able to pull it without much issue even though the blade itself was quite a bit taller than I was at the time.

As the hilt slid out the blade was finally exposed – and a burst of wind suddenly shot out from within the sheath spreading across the room and shocking the occupants. I fell backward and almost dropped the sword altogether, but I managed to slide the hilt back into the sheath before anything else happened.

"Is that not all the proof you need? The blade has accepted him as its wielder."

I looked up at him – I found him gazing at me with that same stern look, although now he seemed to be studying me more than anything else. The younger Yatagarasu continued to stare at the blade, his face seemingly starting to twist into a pained expression.

And I knew. I knew that whatever happened from here on out was all because of what had happened here tonight. I wasn't all that far off, either.

In the aftermath of that meeting I wasn't sure what happened. My uncle was fuming at me, but at this point, considering how I had control over a blade of legend he really couldn't find itself in him to do anything more than yell at me. He was likely still too stunned by the entire deal – but it seemed as if the family was going to continue paying tribute… Whatever that meant.

I remember returning home to a concerned Chinami who had apparently fallen asleep in my room… On my bed… You see where this is going, right? I had to spend the night on the floor since at that point it was far too late for her to walk home alone. But she had apparently understood my request to not touch the sword perfectly well, so I didn't have to lose any sleep over that. This was probably the first time I hadn't lost sleep over Chinami being in the same room as I was.

Too bad I lost sleep over being stuck on the floor. If it wasn't one thing about Chinami, it was _always_ something else…

The following morning, the younger Yatagarasu was at the front door, asking for me.

"Good morning, Furude-san." He said with a small smile. The only reason why he was smiling was because there was a half asleep Chinami welded to my arm.

"Ah, morning… About last night…"

"Oh, I wasn't going to question what you were… Oh, I'm sorry. That wasn't an appropriate statement." He said, slightly embarrassed.

"Uh, whatever… Look, the meeting was a bit… You know, I'm sorry you had to sit in front of all those people and have your dad rip on you like that."

"O-Oh, that's fine. It's not that big a deal."

"Of course it is!" I almost shouted. I knew he was being serious, but I really wanted him to stop thinking that way. "I don't think I could ever manage with a father like that."

"A-Anyway, I'm here to tell you that my training officially starts now."

"Oh, right. What's that about? I wanted to ask you."

"I'm to observe and interact with humans and learn their strengths and weaknesses… But I don't know where to start."

That was some training – And I'd found reading scrolls to be a pain. But learning everything about an entire species while detailing every tiny thing he could? He definitely had it rough.

"Hey…I know!" Chinami suddenly spoke up. "You can… We can help you!" She shouted. Whenever Chinami had just woken up it was as if she were drunk. Yatagarasu found it funny though.

"Actually, that's not a bad idea. The best place to start would be with kids like us, I guess… So how about this – we'll go out into the forest again. We'll just hang around this time and you can… figure out what my strengths and weaknesses are and all of that." My primary goal was to get him to have some amount of fun while he was staying here. And he'd probably be taking in all kinds of crazy details the entire time.

"Sure, that… That'll probably work… But, um… Can Chinami come?" He asked glancing in her direction.

Hm… Did he like her? Was that the sort of vibe I was getting from him? Unfortunately for him he'd fallen for the _wrong _girl. Like, the _worst _one imaginable. She'd probably drive him off the deep end in a day – and then Chinami would go down in history as the first eleven-year old girl to slay a Yatagarasu.

"Sure I can!" She suddenly shouted. I just shrugged and smiled somewhat at Yatagarasu.

And with that – well, once Chinami got herself in working condition – we went off into the woods, this time to show Yatagarasu how kids had a fun time.

* * *

It went on like that, too. For the next several days we'd show him around the village and take him random places. The three of us spent most of our time in the woods – it was actually a good excuse too, since I was technically assisting our honored guest with his affairs.

And as time went on, Yatagarasu became a bit more open than he had been in the past. His smiles were far less forced as time went on, and as time went on it became all that more obvious that he _did_ have some sort of crush on Chinami. He'd become more and more 'normal' in our subjective sense as time went on. It was all a good learning experience for him – something that most human children in his spot wouldn't normally have.

We spent day after day doing whatever we felt like. Chinami would always be exhausted at the end of the day and we'd have to drag her back home – much to Yatagarasu's delight. Of course as time went on his unfocused eyes seem to become more and more focused – he certainly appeared to be much more like his father as time went on.

Time marched on, and before we knew it fall had arrived. This fall, however, seemed more like winter than any fall that had preceded it. At one point Yatagarasu was planning on leaving the village during the winter, but at one point or another Chinami had more or less convinced him to stay even though winters in the village seemed to be the most grueling times of the year. The shrine was always the warmest place, and so we spent most of our time indoors. And in that time Yatagarasu took to reading through my stores of scrolls.

And needless to say I was completely stunned when he had gone through every single one of them in a matter of two afternoons. He'd found the content to be far too simplistic… Whereas I couldn't make sense of the first few lines half the time. Such was the disadvantage of being human.

At some point we had all apparently aged about a year, and in some sort of commemoration Chinami dragged us outside on what was probably going to be the warmest day of the fall. We went out into the woods, once again, this time going further in than ever before but leaving a trail behind us so we'd know how to return.

We went about our usual business, but at some point something particularly noteworthy happened.

Amongst a number of destroyed trees, we found what appeared to be some kind of a building. It was very small and underdeveloped – or so I thought.

Upon approaching it, we found that it wasn't a normal building – it was made out of some sort of metal, much like a sword or a knife. But how could someone have built a building from such material? Did such means even exist?

"Riku… What's this doing out here?" Chinami asked cautiously. She wasn't sure what to make of it either.

"It's a shack of some kind…" Yatagarasu trailed off. He walked towards it, much to our surprise. He stood before what appeared to be some sort of door.

"Wait, you don't know what could be in there!" I shouted.

"Let's find out." He spoke quietly before opening the metallic door. Chinami and I shared glances. Yatagarasu was never this forward with something before.

But as he opened the door, he suddenly took a step backward. Instantly, Chinami and I were both at his side. Without any further delay, I peered into the dark building – and what I saw, well, let's just say I could've gone my whole life without seeing it and I wouldn't have missed out on anything important. In fact, I probably would've been better off that way.

Inside was what appeared to be a completely vacant room, save for a large, iron table that sat in the middle. But once my eyes adjusted to the darkness – I saw the actual state of the room.

Blood. Blood everywhere – blood covering the walls and ceiling. Blood covering the floor – and on the floor, oh, the floor – skeletons of all sizes and shapes. Animals, people, all sorts of skeletons, from child to adult. It was a horrid sight – I felt like throwing up right then and there. The blood even seemed fresh.

"…What the hell…?" I stared in shock and fear. I was too stunned to do much of anything right now.

"Someone did this… How long has this been here?" Yatagarasu pondered while Chinami had yet to see what was inside the room.

But as we mulled over the state of the room, we heard a rustling in the bushes nearby.

"What was that?" I suddenly questioned. I tried to hear for further sound, but the cicadas – which were out of place for this time of year, might I add – drowned out anything that could've been a sound. It was probably an animal, but we were on edge at the moment.

As I walked further away from the other two, I suddenly heard the rustling again. And again and –

"Yata-kun… Look ou –"

I heard Chinami shout – and by the time I had turned around it was already too late.

Whatever had been making the sound – and _whatever _it was, to this day I'm still not entirely sure _what _it was – it had jumped. It was no ordinary animal – it had attacked us, most specifically Yatagarasu. I wondered if it knew what he was or if he just seemed different and therefore more delectable to… whatever that thing was.

But it didn't change the fact that he'd been jumped. It didn't change the fact that Chinami had been overtaken by the shock of the moment. It didn't change the fact that Yatagarasu was completely defenseless, as the rest of us were.

And it didn't change the fact that Chinami tried to shield him.

And in didn't change the fact that, in one fell swoop, the monster that attacked claimed her left arm.

All I heard was a scream. I heard her screaming – I heard my dear friend scream as a wave of overwhelming pain swept her away.

And I saw it happen – and I was too shocked to move. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

It – the thing that had attacked her – it was some sort of a dog. A large dog with blood-red fur – which was mostly _stained _with blood, from what I could tell – with the jaws of a tiger and a tail adorned with some sort of a spiked ball on its end.

It wasn't human – it was a demon. I'd almost stopped believing in them, but I knew without a doubt that was what this monster was. I wasn't sure what kind of demon, but Yatagarasu certainly seemed to know.

He fell backward. "…Garm… But… You don't attack humans…" He suddenly gasped – he had realized that the beast had been after him. And Chinami had been caught in the crossfire. He seemed to be shock as well – a fair deal more than I was.

The beast snarled at him before suddenly taking notice of me. And in that instant I knew I was next. With human blood on its hands, apparently for the first time – it likely was going to go for more.

It jumped towards me and I could do nothing else but run.

I took off purely off of instinct, heading down the trail we'd left behind. I couldn't think about protecting Yatagarasu right now – this was much more immediate. I assumed that Chinami was going to die –

But as I ran, the area around me seemed to fog up – there was a strange and unnatural fog in the air, and there was little cause for it. I knew the demon was somehow involved, but even so I had to keep on running. I continued through the woods –

But eventually it grabbed hold of me. And with no effort whatsoever it threw me across the woods and into that metallic building like I was nothing more than a ragdoll. My body was overcome by pain as my vision seemed to cloud even further. I knew the demon was a foot or two in front of me, and that I was about to perish. I closed my eyes – I was finally being faced with that concept of death. The concept that I had been so afraid of.

And I wished I could've been anywhere else in the world right then.

But then, the demon suddenly stopped.

And what appeared to be a large claw suddenly emerged from the darkness – and with it a much smaller, but equally as menacing beast – the wings of a crow, the face of a lion, and claws that seemed more like talons – this beast attacked the demon, plunging its talons into its chest and ending its life in one strike.

I blinked my eyes. The fog had completely vanished. And Yatagarasu was standing there, in the beast's place.

"You killed her… You killed her… I won't ever let you rest… I'll… to Hell and…" He hissed. It was as if he were a different person entirely.

And he collapsed to the ground. I stood up, sweating profusely and shaking almost violently. I glanced at the corpse of demon before I ran over to him –

But as I tried to do so, I suddenly collapsed to the ground. I found myself in a very sudden daze. And my consciousness faded as I truly believed that things could never get any worse.

* * *

The following morning, the aftermath hit. Hard.

In the end it appeared that we were attacked by a rogue demon that went by the name of Garm. We were apparently far enough in the forest that, with Yatagarasu with us, we were on his radar. And so he struck – and went mad with the scent of human blood, as Garm class demons apparently tended to.

And I was powerless, throughout it all. I couldn't protect the people I cared about. And so our lives were very brutally and very suddenly altered.

Chinami survived the incident by some miracle – only her forearm had been ripped off in the attack, and so by the time Yatagarasu apparently regained consciousness and sealed Chinami's wound she was still alive. I never questioned what I saw in that forest – that creature that Yatagarasu had turned into was something so violent and carnal that I'd never believe that he was consciously controlling it otherwise.

But afterward, the elder Yatagarasu was furious. The village was thrown into an outrage as well – and in the end while it was all my fault Yatagarasu took the blame for me. He determined that his son was not yet ready to complete the training necessary to become a full blown Yatagarasu, and so it was decided that the two would leave the village, fairly permanently, after everything was set in order.

I was having a hard time dealing with it all – Chinami had still been in a temporary coma from the shock of the whole ordeal, and Yatagarasu had been taken away by his father. Things fell apart so very quickly – and ultimately it was my fault. I'd taken them both out into the woods even though we shouldn't have been there in the first place.

It was at this point that I turned into the person that I am today – I became far more cynical than I had ever been in the past, and I would forever carry the blame for Chinami's permanent scar.

But once Chinami woke up, I found out I was guilty of something far worse than that. I filled her in on everything that had happened – every last detail, including Yatagarasu's permanent departure from the village. I'd told her everything, and despite it all she never so much as cried a single tear.

No. Instead she was far worse off than simply crying tears.

Chinami would never smile again. Her over enthusiastic personality that I secretly adored would never surface ever again – it was forever suppressed under the sadness and pain that came with a memory that would plague her nightmares for possibly the rest of her life. Her bubbly and optimistic attitude towards life was forever changed, all in that one instant.

I had lost her. I'd lost my best friend. I'd lost her, and it was my fault. I'd lost her, I could never really apologize for any of it.

With the end of my own innocence, I was prepared to some degree for what was ahead –

While Yatagarasu and I were separated, I did indeed see him again – ten years later, in an even more dire and hopeless world, where my story continues.

* * *

_10 Days Remain (June 20__th__, 1983)_

_Rika Furude _

I awoke on a bed in a room I wasn't familiar with. I looked around, realizing that I was indeed in a different place from before. The transition from the Akarana Corridor to here had apparently gone smoothly – I was once again Rika Furude. I was finally back in my old body.

I sighed with relief – although it was short lived, as my face was stained with tears. It seemed I had cried in my sleep – I wasn't surprised. Not in the slightest.

What was this? What was all of this madness?

My ancestor's past – was it truly something so dark and disturbing?

Things seemed so _wrong_… I didn't know where to begin.

"Rika-chan, is something wrong?" I turned, coming face to face with a rather sleepy looking Rena, who had apparently woken up as I did. She was apparently sleeping next to me for whatever reason in this strange place I'd never seen before. It was a fairly normal looking interior for a building, but I'd never been here before.

"Oh, did I wake you? I'm sorry."

"It's fine… You were crying in your sleep. Is everything alright?"

"Yeah… I'm fine. Just a bad dream."

Rena was clearly concerned about me – she was always at her finest when she was like this. She was always willing to help her friends, no matter what. Looking at her, I could barely see any resemblance to that vile woman who looked just like her.

"You need anything?"

"No, it's fine. I'll just get some water or something." I rose from the bed. "…Wait,_ is_ there a sink or something around here?"

"Sure there is… the bathroom is right behind that door." Rena smiled at me. "Are you still half asleep? Don't fall over anything, alright?"

"Okay, thanks…" I sighed as I stood up completely and stretched, eventually making my way over to the door.

"Oh, and one more thing." Rena suddenly spoke again.

"Yeah?" I asked, not particularly concerned with what she was saying at the moment.

"…Don't forget what we're here for, Serika-tan."

My eyes widened and I turned on a dime to face her –

But there was no sign of that woman anywhere on Rena's face.

"Um…Is something wrong? You're staring at me…" It seemed like I was only hearing things – although I somewhat doubted it.

All I knew was that I had a job to do – I would track down Nebiros, or die trying.

I decided that after I'd gotten some water I'd get as much sleep as I could. Perhaps in the morning things would make sense.

And with that, putting Riku Furude's past behind me for the moment, I prepared for the road ahead…

* * *

_**Author's Note **_

So there, that's the _beginning _of Riku Furude's story. And let me just say that things don't get much better for him either. But you sort of know how his story goes – it's just that now there's goddess shenanigans involved. In the end, what we know about Riku Furude won't be terribly altered.

And yes. Chinami's dialogue was kept mostly cringe worthy and the fun stuff was dragged out like crazy so the end seemed like as much of a massive troll as possible. I hope it worked. (Oh, and there's a huge nod to _End Dreamer_ in this chapter. Go find it.)

This is about as long as these chapters are going to get. Here I had to establish quite a deal more than I had to last time – I already had a chapter set up for Serika, but this was basically the first chapter for the reminiscing Riku Furude. His story will go as far as the fight you saw at the start of the story – and a bit further. But you'll know the whole story by the time we get there.

So with the next chapter, the next arc will begin. While the last one was a bit more of a survivalist typed arc with a whole lot of action, this one falls under the survival _horror _side of things. But we'll get to that later on.

So that's that. The next arc will be hopefully completed before August 27th, because after that point my updates will pretty much stop for some extended period of time. But we'll see where we are when that time comes.


	7. Greatest Fear Chapter, Episode 1

**Greatest Fear Chapter, Episode 1**

_35 Days Remain (May 27__th__, 1983)  
__Mion Sonozaki_

Never – at any point before now, at least – did I have any idea just how dire the situation in the village could get. I knew everything there was to know about its dark history – I was a part of it all myself, as much as I'd rather not think about it. But even then I never really understood just how twisted and perverted the world around me could become. But despite that here I was, throwing myself head first into a situation that couldn't end well no matter how optimistic I was. In the end I wondered if I was ever suited to take up the Sonozaki name at all. But it didn't matter – this was my job. This was something I had to do.

But there was always that doubt – that doubt that followed me wherever I went. That doubt that made my success seem all the less practical. But even then – I had to do this. I had to – otherwise there might not be a Sonozaki family to become the head of.

When I read about the first killing I wasn't sure what to make of it. At first I didn't even notice the connection. Back when it had happened I was still busy trying to help Kei-chan get settled into the village. But the moment the second body appeared I knew it was too close to the conditions of the past murders to be coincidence.

The death of the school girl, while impossibly gruesome and demented, was nothing more than a freak incident. Even though the murder had taken place in Okinomiya there was still no sign of relevance to that incident. But the second body – the body found in the Blue Mermaid – even if there wasn't a single shred of practical evidence the simple fact that the body had been found there was more than enough to start pointing fingers at the family.

In truth, the details of last year's incident were a mystery even to me. But I'd been aware even at the time that if something that struck so close to home were to ever happen again the family wouldn't be able to handle it. The Blue Mermaid was the host for many a vile person, but murder is still murder, no matter how you look at it. The family was never explicitly targeted, but in the end there weren't any other suspects either.

But the body had been found and there wouldn't be any second chances. And whoever was responsible was doubtlessly trying to frame the family. Even if the family was involved, there was no way that any assassin with half a brain would leave the body lying around in their own house, which was essentially what this boiled down to. But that didn't matter – the people were enraged, and some sort of a scapegoat would have to be found. Such were the demands of the mob. And if those demands weren't met, things such as the right to trial would lose their meaning altogether.

I thought about waiting things out and letting things run their course. But something told me that laying low wasn't going to achieve anything – I had to resolve this incident in the most direct way possible, even if the chances for success were dramatically slim. And so today, with the intent to find a middle path to satisfy those demands, I've gone and called out the leader of the mob itself.

Okinomiya was composed of many office buildings, almost all of which I'd never stepped foot in before. But this building was tucked away compared to the others – it was relatively well hidden, which actually made sense considering the people that managed it. All I knew about this place was that the man I was looking for, Saturn Anne, was doubtlessly here. There was a definite chance that I'd be attacked purely for being a Sonozaki, but I could at least hope that the leader of the pack would be a bit more sensible than that.

But there was no guarantee. There was a chance, alright – but that chance was awfully slim.

I stood outside the building, still incredibly hesitant to enter. My heart was beating much faster than normal and I was holding my breath without realizing it. For a moment I almost faltered – no matter how headstrong I pretended to be there wasn't any doubt in my mind that this was what I amounted to – I was afraid, and very much so. No matter what I'd done in the past, I always had someone to fall back on. But now – it was quite the opposite. I was alone – alone and afraid.

I shut my eyes for am moment. And for a time I can hear my innermost fears play themselves out.

_There's got to be another way. Frontal confrontation can only end in failure.  
__You understand. There isn't a worse way to go about things.  
__But is there any other way?  
__Of course there is – the one option that is always present.  
__The option that will disappear the moment you step through those doors.  
__Give up.  
__Maybe you should just give up.  
__You can't succeed. The chance is far too close to zero…  
You should go home. Leave this sort of thing to someone else.  
__You don't want to get hurt.  
__You don't want to hurt anyone.  
__The best thing to do is to do nothing._

I can hear it – the tempting reality of the situation. The reality that I could ever so easily accept. I could feel my resolve slipping away as the thought of ending this suicidal plan of mine prematurely ate away at it.

I start to shiver. And then I can feel it –

I feel an ice cold hand resting against my shoulder. And then I hear his voice once again –

No. No, I didn't. I didn't feel such a thing. I didn't hear such a thing. It was some sort of disease. There was no man standing next to me, whispering my darkest thoughts into my ear. There was no devil on my shoulder, convincing me to succumb to my fear and desire. There was nothing of the sort – at least that was what I told myself to keep under control.

_Give in.  
__Give in to what you want.  
__You don't have to risk your life like this.  
__Go home.  
__Give up.  
__You aren't obligated to save anyone.  
__Not anymore.  
__You've done your part.  
__Now go home.  
__Give up.  
__Or press on and die. _

I begin to lose control as the reality of what I was about to do continued to sink in. I still refused to open my eyes. I refused to acknowledge any of it –

And in that moment I could almost see an image – the faces of those who are important to me. Amongst them was my sister, my mother, Satoko, Rika, Rena –

And Kei-chan was there as well. That's right – even though I hadn't known him for very long, he already stood out amongst the villagers. He was a bit different – in a good way, at least. His tenacity, his purely instinctive drive to never give up – while I pretend to surpass him in terms of all of the above, the truth is the opposite. Kei-chan is something else – I've never seen anyone quite like him. And I couldn't help but think that if I were more like him that my decision to press on would be that much simpler.

This would doubtlessly be a point of no return. Once I stepped into the building all hell would certainly break lose. In the end, the only thing at stake was my own life. But if I chose to risk it, the possibility that my family would be saved was still just as great.

I open my eyes. The feeling on my shoulder vanishes. There is no voice whispering in my ear. I'm sane once more, even if just for the moment. I take a step forward.

Kei-chan would do this. He would press on, no matter the risks. If it was for the people he cared about, he'd stop at nothing.

I opened the large double doors and entered the dark and damp room on the other side of them. The walls were grey and the floor was carpeted with one dull and uninteresting color. The room is large but rather dense – it's an office building, so the floors were designed with such an atmosphere in mind. It's nothing more than a normal office building, at least as far as appearances went. It was filled with the usual office building chatter, drenched with the boredom of the day to day routine that everyone collectively shared.

But the moment I turned away I could feel it – without a doubt I was being watched. I could feel the tension in the air – the pure malice that greeted me at the door. There are many people in this room, many separated by cubicles and doorways, but in that moment I can feel it – all eyes are on me. They all know who I am. And they all want nothing more than to see my head roll.

It's so unnatural. The feeling mutually expressed by everyone in this room is practically inhuman. I feel as if I'm being stared it by a pack of hungry wolves, ready to lunge at me the moment I let my guard down.

I walked forward to the front desk, or at least what I believed to be the front desk. The woman sitting there was rather soulless – her eyes were half shut and she expressed no emotion even as she spoke to me.

"Third floor, eighth row, ninth room, first cubicle." She spoke in a very monotone sort of voice without even making any sort of eye contact with me. It seemed that not only did the people in this building know who I was, but they knew why I was here and who I was looking for. I swallowed hard before nodding my head and following her directions.

I managed to locate the flight of stairs without much issue and almost too quickly I opened the door to the stairwell, shut it almost too loudly and gasped for air, grabbing onto the railing and almost buckling at my knees.

There was something very wrong with that room. It wasn't even just the atmosphere – the longer I spent in there the more feeble I became. No wonder the people in that room were so lifeless – I couldn't stand the sheer amount of pressure that room forced on me, and I had only been in there for all of five minutes. I could only imagine that it would get worse as I went on. But I had already made it this far. There was no turning back now.

I made my way up to the third floor, the stench of burning carpet and stagnant air filling my nose and nearly choking me. It was needlessly hard to breathe – I doubted that this building passed any public safety exam whatsoever. But then again I doubted it really had to – it would've been a miracle if the government took notice of a place like this at all.

Eventually I made my way up the stairs and finally escaped the stairwell. I was once again back in that enfeebling environment that composed the offices. With a small amount of difficulty I managed to dodge the hostile office workers and made my way towards the first cubicle in the third room –

And all of a sudden the temperature dropped. There wasn't an air conditioner or anything of the sort in the cubicle – it simply became several degrees colder.

The cubicle was fairly spacious compared to the others, with nothing more than a desk and a computer situated in the far corner – with the man I was looking for sitting in a chair behind the desk.

Our eyes met – and I wanted nothing more than to turn, leave and run as far away as I could. His eyes were as unnatural a shade of yellow as his hair was a shade of black. He appeared to be fairly young – probably not that much older than I was. But then why was he just so intimidating? Maybe it was the bags under his eyes? The clear sleep deprivation that made him seem very unhealthy?

He smiled ever so slightly. "Mion Sonozaki. We meet at last."

"…Are you the leader?" I managed to speak, forcing myself to stomach my fears and get down to business.

"Have a seat." He responded. At that moment I noticed the chair situated across from the desk. I sat down, half expecting the chair to collapse underneath me.

"You seek resolution, yes?" He continued, skipping introductions entirely. I assumed he was speaking of the incident and nodded my head in affirmation. I was fairly certain he knew exactly what I was going to say and exactly what I wanted, so I decided that keeping my mouth shut would be the best way to go about things. The last thing I needed to do was somehow irritate the person I was trying to make a deal with.

"Very well… But you do understand the circumstances, do you not?"

"…Yes. I know why you're all so sure that we're guilty, but…"

"But the fact that you, the heir to the family, have crossed over into such hostile territory with no way out but the front door signifies the contrary, correct?"

I was relieved that he understood – while he was very young he had the wisdom of someone far older. But wisdom wasn't the only thing that this boy gave off. I had to treat him as if he were my senior, even if that wasn't the case.

"There isn't anything more that I want – all I ask is that you cease whatever it is that you're planning." I got straight to the point – he'd finally heard it from the horse's mouth, as it was. All I had to do now was to wait for a response.

"And how exactly…" He began, "…do I go ahead and call off my plans, considering how no alternative scapegoat has been offered?"

"…Scapegoat?"

And then he did something strange – he began to talk down to me, while praising me at the same time.

"Sonozaki-san, despite your sheer force of will and tremendous courage, you're like me… You're young and a tad naïve. But unlike me you are inexperienced in this sort of thing – regardless of what you or I believe, think of the masses. How many of them would truly accept the resolution you want to reach?"

"…Shouldn't it be sufficient if…" My eyes suddenly widen. I understand now – I understand his point.

"The masses are fools with intellect. The masses connect with the deaths of their friends and loved ones and the pain of those around them – in the end, those that understand the pain and suffering that death brings are the ones who act out against it. Humans fear death – and as humans fear death, they fight against it with all their might."

Humans fear death – it made sense. It wasn't something I thought about extensively, but it added up. People were so afraid of something as dark and vile as death that they'd resist it to the best of their ability. And that translated into fighting back. And to fight against death…

"…So the masses want someone to blame." I nearly whispered. "…They want to think they've fought back and won… and…" I swallowed hard. It was a horrific realization, although I tried to hide it as best as I could.

"And it doesn't matter who gets swallowed up. The masses demand death to restore their peace of mind. They demand death to prevent more death. It's a mob mentality – and mind the word 'mentality.' The mob is too sophisticated, ironically enough, to accept such a peaceful resolution. As a singular entity I have no say in that matter."

"But aren't you their leader…?" I was almost pleading. But I realized a few seconds too late. Furthermore, I'd assumed that he'd want to help me in the slightest. But even then, even if he had no motivation to ever grant me what I wanted, he hadn't thrown me out.

"Again, as I am… Young, and a bit naïve. I am a figurehead and nothing more. I have power to a certain degree, of course, but I can say without a doubt that if the situation called for it I'd lose that power far faster than I claimed it."

"…Then what would you have me do?"

"Haven't you figured it out?"

I remained silent.

"…You must do as _I _ask. Only then will it be enough."

Once more I remained silent, my face falling slightly as I contemplated things. Certainly, what he would have me do wouldn't be any easy task. But on top of that…

"If the Sonozaki family is not involved, a fourth party must be made apparent to the masses. On top of that the murders must stop… So essentially what needs to be done is fairly simple, yet highly complicated."

"…You want me to find the killer?"

That would be the easiest way to go about doing things. But then again, as he had said, it was very complicated. If I had even the slightest clue as to who was involved, I would've gone straight after them. But the two murders so far – they were extremely inhuman in nature. There were no identifiable signs of any murder weapon or anything of the sort. And on top of that, there was that rumor… It was even possible at this point that the killer wasn't human to begin with.

"…That is one way, but not the only way."

I faced him directly again. He was offering another way out? But what else could there possibly be?

He'd noticed my sudden interest – and he seemed to grin. His smile was slightly more apparent and that much more condescending. "You must make someone disappear. Someone of…_my _choosing. And the masses will approve. And you, your loved ones, and your family shall go free."

I couldn't imagine the look on my face at that moment. He was asking me to kill someone – someone he wanted dead..?

Could I even do such a thing? Surely I was capable of it, but…

"Are you prepared to descend down that path? If it's for those you care about?" He could apparently read me like an open book. He knew exactly how difficult it was going to be for me to make this decision. And he was very open about making me aware of it.

"…Who? Who do you want dead so badly?"

He sighed. "Believe me… There's about a million people that I want dead, but this one… This one's a bit special to begin with. I'm not going to go into it, however. I'm going to give you a name, you will hunt them down, and I will convince the masses that they were involved and that they are on the run. That is our deal."

"…Just give me the name."

"Kill Keiichi Maebara."

For a moment I thought I heard him say something incredibly strange. For a moment I thought he'd named Kei-chan… Why would he want Kei-chan dead? I must've misheard him.

"…I'm sorry?"

"Kill Keiichi Maebara."

…I'd most definitely been hearing things. Every time I asked for the name I heard Kei-chan's instead…

"I-I'm sorry, but can you –"

"Kill Keiichi Maebara, resident of Hinamizawa as of two weeks ago. I doubt this task should be particularly difficult for you… Do you accept?"

I felt every bone in my body suddenly dissolve. The feeling was there again – the feeling of the ice cold hand on my shoulder.

I could see his reflection in the window – a man with bright red hair, wearing an extravagant cloak with the most demonic smile feasible plastered on his face.

_Well?  
__What will you do?  
__You love him, don't you?  
__Will you kill him?  
__Will you kill him to save your family?  
_…_Nah, who gives a damn?  
__You don't need to save them._

Of course I do. I love my family…

_What did your family ever do for you?_

I'd be nothing without them.

_Didn't they make you torture your sister?_

I'd put that behind me. Things were different.

_Weren't you forced to watch while they made your friends into outcasts?_

That was never intended. Oni-baba said that herself.

_And didn't they drop their sin on you like a sack of bricks?_

The family lives with its crimes. There's no shame, no disunity… I can do it, if it's for them...

_But you don't have a damn clue about who's behind the killings.  
Sure, you love your family.  
You love him, too.__  
__Your only escape is to accept both.  
And compromise.  
Step up or step off.__  
__If you won't kill him, run away._

I can't… I can't just shut my eyes and cover my ears.

_You have to.  
__You can't live otherwise.  
__Your life will change.  
__Everything will change.  
__In the end you might not have a family worth saving._

I still have to do something.

_You can't do it.  
__You don't have the right.  
__You don't have the capacity.  
__You aren't fated to do it._

Kei-chan would disagree.

_I'll say it like it is.  
__He's about as foolish as you are.  
__You won't run. You can't fight.  
__You don't have the capacity to kill the beast.  
__You'll only end up becoming a beast yourself.  
__Become the beast.  
__Kill him.  
__You have no other choice._

And if that happens, then let it. I won't… kill Kei-chan.

_You don't sound so sure…  
__You must make your choice.  
__You have thirty seconds.  
__Do or die._

No… I can… I can think this over. I just have to…

"The deal is struck, then?" Suddenly things shift back into reality. I can no longer feel the man's presence, nor can I feel his hand on my shoulder. His reflection no longer appears in the window.

"…"

"You may go. But remember – the longer you delay, the worse your chances become."

I nodded my head before rising from my seat. It seemed he'd taken my silence as a confirmation. But despite that I really hadn't committed to anything.

I had a choice.

I had to either do the impossible – or kill someone I felt strongly about. Could I really sacrifice one for many? Could I have even done it if Kei-chan _wasn't _involved?

I had no way of knowing.

And in the end, I would deliberate. And deliberate I would until it was far too late.

* * *

_20 Days Remain (June 10__th__, 1983)  
__Mion Sonozaki_

I was running. I was running through the forest, with Kei-chan at my side. We were running – I wasn't sure what we were running from, but we were running. We were running, and we were both only a few feet in front of whatever it was that was chasing us. And in a few moments we would both be dead.

At first I feel some comfort in the fact that it's Kei-chan that I'm running with – with him there, we'd probably have a better chance of escaping. Kei-chan's will was built of steel – as long as he kept on fighting, there was still hope. As long as he was there, I'd probably have the strength to keep on going.

But eventually our pursuer catches up to us – and I'm on the ground while the man who was chasing us holds Kei-chan at gunpoint. He shoots – and hits me. And I bleed out while Kei-chan… Well, while he kills the man. It's so strange it had to have been some sort of a dream. He kills the man, ever so brutally. But I can't see _how _he does it. My vision is too much of a blur at that point – and the pain in my chest is far too real –

And then I see him – the man that plagues me day and night. The red haired man that accompanies my paranoia and distress. And he smiles at me with a toothy, evil smile, as if he were enjoying watching me die.

And then I wake up. Such is the content of my seemingly endlessly repeating nightmare – a nightmare that's persisted since the start of the month. But it's a nightmare that seems all the more fitting given my current situation – I was running, even now, from a solution to my problems that I was desperately avoiding.

But so much time had passed and I'd learned nothing. And to make matters worse, several people were all murdered at the same time only a few short days ago. And every last one – they were all frequent visitors to the Blue Mermaid. There was no worming my way out of it now – I either had to find the true killer or Kei-chan would have to die to save the village from impending doom.

I'd done as much private investigation as I could. I looked into all of the victims' information, searched police files rather illegally – name a law regarding privacy and I probably broke it while keeping that bastard Oishi off of my trail. And when I couldn't, I had Shion at my side to help me out. At the end of the week there wasn't any stone I left unturned. But nothing came up. I searched for every name that was related to every victim. I even searched the child victims' school rosters – there was absolutely no tie between anyone suspicious and any of these victims. There was no chance that the culprit was related to any of the customers at the bar.

So then who? Was this person some sort of a ghost? Why couldn't I determine a single thing about them?

This was a very usual thought process that went along with my mornings. I always found myself going off like this – it had a serious effect on my day to day routine as well. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that everyone in the club knew there was something wrong with me – I could only hope I could do a good enough job at keeping them from asking too much until the time was right.

This particular morning I ended up getting ready to head out to school before I suddenly realized I didn't _have _to head to school. I was completely unaware of how it was the weekend – it wasn't as if I were paying attention to the cycle of days anyway. I'd just been going to school because it was expected of me. And now I was on my way there just because it was becoming an automatic action I had no control over.

I sighed and dropped my bag near the door before heading back to bed. I didn't have any other reason to leave the house – the more time I spent outside the more time I spent thinking about how a ruthless killer was on the loose. The more time I spent thinking about that ruthless killer, the more time I'd spent thinking about how I'd failed to discover them, and so on and so forth.

I decided that going back to sleep would've been the best course of action. But on my way back to my room I found Shion stopping me. Oh, right – I'd forgotten how she'd wanted me to forget about this whole killer deal.

"I bought you this." She spoke rather curtly – that's right. Her voice was a bit strange these past few days. Actually, we did most of our communicating by passing notes these last few weeks – oh, I failed to mention that Shion's going to school now. She's not working at Angel Mort anymore. She refuses to talk about it, but I'd bet money she was a bit fed up with the usual customer harassment… I piss myself off just thinking about it.

Anyhow, at the moment she was waving the VHS release of _Rose Guns Days, _a recent TV show that I missed most of despite having loved the pilot.

"Oh, did that come out?"

"Today."

"Thanks." I gave her my typical smile, although it was way too artificial for her to ever fall for it. "I'll watch it later."

But suddenly she moved towards the TV in the room, turned it on, popped the VHS into the player, and gave me a very stern look. In a matter of moments, _Love is Omeruta _began to play in the background. If this were a typical scenario I'd have already plopped myself on the floor and wouldn't respond to anything sans being shot in the head until after _Maboroshi ni Shizu _finished playing.

"Watch it now. You're not doing anything anyway."

"Sure I am."

"Then what?"

"I have to finish my homework."

"Already done."

"…Wait, have you been messing around in my room again?"

"I did your homework. That's all."

"I really doubt that, you know."

Shion suddenly grinned. It seemed she was about to taunt me, but suddenly stopped when I finally took a hint.

She was making me spend my time doing something other than sleeping. She was trying to get my mind off of things. And she wasn't going to relent. Not until she knew her precious little sister was fine… It's usually irritating, but given the circumstances this was the best she could do. I'd feel fairly immature if I'd still disobey her knowing that.

"…Alright, whatever. I'll sit and watch it. But you're not going anywhere."

"I don't like westerns."

"But it's not."

"Then what is it?"

"An…An eastern, maybe?" We both laughed somewhat at that, although Shion made some other sound.

"You should go to sleep… What's wrong with your voice?"

"It's nothing. Watch." With that she turned to leave.

I decided to sit on the floor and try to take interest in the show. In a very short span of time, it soaked me up like a sponge – I was actually enjoying something for once. It actually felt somewhat refreshing – given how tense I'd been the last few weeks, of course. I'd made jokes before about how I should've been born a man, but my interest in action shows made even my sister question my femininity. The pilot episode opened as I remembered it. I sat through all of it and the two episodes that followed. But once the second arc of the show started, something seemed strange…

"Wait, what's with that background music – wait, Shion, did you record over the audio or something?!" I was genuinely peeved at that. I wasn't sure how Shion had managed to do something like that but she'd likely been trying to mess with me the entire time.

"It's bootleg. Cheaper since it's out already." She shouted rather hoarsely from the other room.

"Oh. Alright." I tried to sit through it but eventually the sound got a bit too annoying – someone had swapped out the real background music for some really strange song that had something very similar to Rika's 'nipah' sounds echoing in the background the whole time… Having noticed that and failed at trying to tune it out, I eventually just shut off the TV. Now that I had been slightly energized I actually contemplated heading outside for the time being. I had to track down the person who messed with my copy… And kill them. Probably. Maybe. At least I'd stalk him for a few days and leave him death threats.

I went out the door with my VHS in hand, only to realize I hadn't the first idea as to where Shion had bought it. I sighed and turned to head back inside, but as I did so someone suddenly called out to me.

"Hey, Mion!"

I almost shuddered at the mere sound of his voice. I turned to face Kei-chan, who was heading toward me with Rena at his side. I tried my best to fake a smile, hoping that at least Kei-chan would be fooled. Rena would see through me rather instantaneously but out of the kindness in her heart keep quiet about it. I'd ever so suddenly been reminded of what was going on around me. But I tried not to focus on it. Unfortunately, escapism only seems to work when you aren't a few feet away from the person you're trying to escape from.

But I'm still happy – because despite how I've been avoiding Kei-chan like the plague for weeks on end he still does nothing but greet me with that same smile every day. It's the most sappy thing in the world, but it kept me going, so I didn't care how sappy it was.

"Oh, hey. What's going on?" I ask them typically.

"We were going to check up on you," Rena explained, "but I guess we were worrying about nothing!" She said with a smile.

"Right then… So what's the deal with the festival? We haven't heard you say anything about it." Keiichi continued.

"What about the festival?"

"Well… I'm probably shooting myself in the foot by reminding you, but everyone's been telling me you usually run some crazy set of challenges for the club… Wait, Rena, remind me why I'm telling her this? I feel like I should be somewhere far away right now."

"Keiichi-kun… You don't remember?"

"Hm?... Oh, right. Uh, so yeah, what are we doing?" Kei-chan stomached his concerns over the use of 'challenges' and 'club' in the same sentence and responded as if he didn't care about it.

"I wasn't really going to…" I suddenly locked eyes with Rena, who was trying to signal something to me. It seemed she wanted us to spend time together as a group… And it seemed that Kei-chan knew a bit more than I did as well… Was that their method?

"Hm… I guess we could do something." I eventually surrendered to Rena's pleading eyes. She almost squealed while Kei-chan sighed with disappointment.

"Do I get paid now?" He sighed somewhat dramatically.

"…Not until you win –" Rena was apparently heading straight down the 'tease Kei-chan' route. I figured I'd follow suit.

"Alright, alright, you don't have to make it clear. Just as long as I don't have to pay up when I lose."

"That sounds fair, right Mii-chan?" She gave me that familiar look – the 'keep going with it' look.

Poor Kei-chan. Having two people obsessed with him play pranks on him constantly – I wondered if he'd even accept either of us. I doubted he wanted this sort of thing in a relationship.

"I don't know… Don't you still owe me for covering for you? You know, when you were late to school?"

"That's because you made me wake up at five in the morning to gather firewood! What the hell was that even for?!" He complained.

It seemed that some time ago Shion pretended to be me and called Keiichi very early in the morning and told him to gather firewood… I can still remember how embarrassed I was when I found out he'd done it with no explanation just because I'd been the one he thought he was being told by. I still had to get back at Shion for that… I probably should've brought up something else, because now I was too put off by the situation to respond.

"And you _still_ don't have an answer… Why do I even bother?"

"Keiichi-kun…Aren't you forgetting something?"

He gave her a somewhat confused look before his face lit up with… Was it nervousness? Or was it something a bit more like….

"…You know what? Screw this, Rena." With that he turned and he ran, with Rena chasing him. Eventually caught up and tried to convince him to head back towards me, but it seemed like Kei-chan had given up. With that, Rena turned and waved at me. I waved back and the two went off down the road. I smiled somewhat wryly. I suppose that if at least those two can go living as freely as they do now that I don't have to be depressed about _everything_.

Rena was my best friend. Kei-chan… Well, you know the story by now.

I loved them both. I loved them both just because of how they could have this effect on me.

Suddenly, Rena turned her head to the side, having just finished talking to Kei-chan for the moment as they made their way down the road – And she looked towards the man to her other side.

The man with red hair, this time wearing a white suit jacket with matching pants, casually laughing and telling Rena a funny joke, getting a response out of her before she looked away.

And he turned his head, stared at me and grinned with that demonic grin – Before I blinked and he vanished completely as Kei-chan and Rena separated.

And then, once more, I could feel his ice cold hand on my shoulder.

_Don't forget.  
__Aw, who am I kidding?  
__You're not going to forget.  
__You're never going to forget…  
__You can try to shut it out all you want.  
__But you know I'm right.  
Your precious sister? Your best friend? Rika? Satoko? Your mother, grandmother, and all the rest?  
__They're going to die.  
__They're going to die because you can get over some kid.  
__Think about it.  
__Kill him. Kill him, kill the witnesses, and everyone you care about goes free.  
__You can even kill him right now._

And then I could feel his other hand slide along my arm. I was frozen with fear and made no attempt to stop him. His fingers intertwined with mine and suddenly, as if out of nowhere, some sort of a dagger appeared in my hand. And in that moment my hand began to sting – It was like holding your hand over a lit stove. I started to breathe heavily. What was happening? What was this feeling? My hand shook.

_Go. Just take a few steps…  
Then take a running leap…  
__And plunge that blade into his heart.  
__And that's it.  
__That's all you have to do.  
__Just kill him.  
Do it, and everyone else get's to live.  
Do it, and your life goes on.  
Don't you want your sister to be around to care about you?  
Don't you want Rena's company?  
Don't you want all those things that make up your life to stay the same?_

...I took a step forward, focusing on nothing but Kei-chan's back.

___Don't worry.  
__There's always more than one…  
__You'll find another… In about six years…  
_…_Ihihi._  
Ihihihi…  
_Ihihihiahahahahahahahahahaha _

"…No!" I hissed before doubling over, barely catching myself before I hit the concrete. I dropped the dagger, which seemed to fade out of existence. "I won't… I won't kill Kei-chan…"

Very light tears fell from my eyes. "I don't…Know who you are, but… I'm not like you…I won't do it."

_Then what will you do?  
__You have no chance._

"That's not… True… As long as I have them, I can… I can manage."

_You're going to lose them.  
__You're going to lose Keiichi no matter what happens.  
__Rena, Rika, Satoko, Shion – they're all going to die.  
__Unless you kill Keiichi. _

"No…No, I'm not going to…Never, I just won't…!" I almost gasped.

_Do it.  
__Kill him.  
__You have to.  
__Kill him…!_

"Mion?"

I suddenly turned – it was Shion. She was apparently on her way out of the manor. It had only just occurred to me that I was on my knees right in front of my house. It's somewhat needless to say that the moment she saw me she pulled me back indoors.

I couldn't explain any of it. I wouldn't explain any of it. There was no way I could tell Shion how I came to collapse on the road. It's fortunate that she's my sister, so I didn't _have _to explain _any _of it.

It was almost touching. Shion treated me like her sister and nothing but – for the next hour or so, all I could recall was Shion's presence as she did nothing but hug me the entire time and tell me everything was fine.

It seemed like I'd finally snapped. The pressure built up day after day before it blew me up from the inside. I'd started hallucinating about a strange man with strange hair and creating daggers out of thin air – but Shion was here, so it was all okay.

"You put too much stress on yourself." She'd tell me, her voice apparently back to normal. "It's enough that you've been worrying about Kei-chan."

"But you of all people should know… I can't stop thinking about him, no matter how hard I try… And it's not even just him who's at risk, here…" Of course I couldn't stop thinking about him for a reason my sister knew nothing about.

"But you can't expect to do anything on your own… Even with me helping you it wasn't possible. So… Just let it go."

"But I…"

"I know you're worried. I know you're afraid something is going to happen… But it won't." I'd asked Shion to help me simply due to her prodding in my affairs, but I hadn't spoken a word about Okinomiya, Saturn Anne, or Kei-chan. "The family has it under control." She tried to console me. But I knew more than she did. And I knew it would all be for naught if I didn't do _something_.

"I'm not sure if I can believe that."

"Then just trust _me_ to make sure nothing happens."

I looked at her somewhat dubiously, but she was being completely serious. "You? But…"

"I'll take care of everything. Just go and enjoy the festival next week… You've got a boy in the club again. Who knows what'll happen?" She tried to give me a reassuring smile.

I was a bit shocked that she'd allude to Satoshi in such a way – but she was trying to make a point. She was telling me to leave everything to her.

I trusted her with my life, but I wasn't willing to trust her with her own. But even so… If there was anyone in the world I _could _trust with the lives of everyone I care about, it would be Shion.

With that being said, I simply embraced her. And that was the note our conversation ended on.

I couldn't hear his voice. I couldn't feel his cold touch. That man was nowhere to be seen.

I knew it wouldn't last. I knew it was only a matter of time.

But for now, it was alright if I left things to Shion for a bit.

She was the older sister, after all.

And so we simply remained that way – in yet another instance where I could say without a doubt that Shion was the best sister I could ever hope for.

* * *

_11 Days Remain (June 19__th__, 1993)_

_Mion Sonozaki_

Watanagashi had arrived, and just as my sister had convinced me to, I appeared on the scene fairly early in the morning before the rest of the villagers were even awake. I'd been neglecting my duties with regards to the festival, so I decided to make up for… some of it by making sure everything was in order. To my surprise the food stands were already cooking – although some of them weren't being tended to. After making sure nothing was burning – although for a second the smoked salmon almost gave me a heart attack before I figured out the 'smoked' part wasn't there just for show.

Everything else seemed to be in order, so I ended up checking up on Rika and Satoko, who were both already awake… although Rika was still in a daze. I wasn't sure why I found an empty bottle of imported European wine on the counter but I decided to ignore it as Satoko seemed to be doing that as well.

The remainder of the morning was spent cleaning up their room. I'm not sure how they'd managed to keep a room so untidy, but based on Satoko's reaction and Rika's false innocence when I questioned them about it, it seemed that Rika was the guilty one here… Once again, I chose not to question it.

Eventually the shrine grounds became crowded enough that some of the activities were starting up. Satoko, Rika, and I ran through all of the games for the sake of having an edge over Rena and Keiichi – which was foiled to some degree when we ran into Rena at the line for one of the games, while Kei-chan was still nowhere in sight.

Eventually we split up for a short while – and during that short while Shion found me and told me to head towards the shrine. It was a few hours before the ceremony and Rika was still out an about, so I wasn't sure what she wanted me to head there for. But I did as she asked anyhow –

And sitting on the steps by the offertory box was none other than Kei-chan.

I called out to him. "Hey, what're you doing over here? You missed the club activities!"

"Is that so?" He seemed to dismiss it… And gave me a look as if I were the last person in the world he'd wanted to see. Something wasn't right here. Kei-chan didn't necessarily appreciate the various assortment of pranks we ended up playing on him, but he wasn't one to just blow off the club like this.

"What's wrong?"

"Everything." He spoke in a cold, dejected voice. His eyes were heavy and he seemed to be scowling – scowling at something far off in the distance that I couldn't see no matter how many times I tried to follow his eyes.

"…Huh?"

"Everything's wrong, Mion… You, Rena, Rika… Everything's just so…" He trailed off, but suddenly he turned to face me – his eyes were bloodshot and his face showed signs of a distinctive lack of sleep. He'd been staying awake, late at night? But –

I then realized… There was something very wrong here. Something had happened to him. Something horrific in nature.

"Look at me, Mion… What do you see?"

"What're you saying?"

"Is there anything… _wrong_ with me?"

"You look tired…Really tired…Kei-chan, what've you been doing?"

"I must be going crazy… That's the only explanation for it… Ever since those murders started happening, I've been…"

My eyes widened.

"Kei-chan…What's going on?"

"I tried to hide it at first…" He seemed to ignore me altogether. "…But I just can't, Mion. Rena couldn't help me, and you were shutting yourself in your room, so I couldn't go to you either… I'm not sure what to do."

Was this what he was going to say that day?

I felt a pang of guilt in my stomach. Kei-chan had been suffering from something – and he'd decided not to talk to me about it because I'd been forcing myself to fight the pressure of holding the entire family on my shoulders. He'd been in pain for such a long time, and still he managed to visit me that day with nothing but a smile on his face.

He was suffering. But he was worried about his friends.

And I was going to kill him?

I was going to kill him to protect everyone?

Is that fair? Even in the slightest?

"Kei-chan, what's wrong?" I spoke somewhat more firmly.

"I told you… Everything. Everything is just… I look at Shion, I see a girl with black hair. I look at Rena and she has silver hair. I look at Rika, I see a girl with some strange dress… I look at myself and I see an old man in a wheelchair… I see pictures of Satoshi and I see some other guy covered in blood... I don't get it. I really just…"

He was hallucinating. Something was causing him to hallucinate. It might've been something similar to my own condition. I was wrapped in my own futile efforts while someone that needed me was struggling all on their own.

And now he was like this – practically on the edge of insanity.

Suddenly, he extended his arm, pointing with a shaky finger to a statue of Oyashiro-sama across from us. "…And I look at that statue, and I… I see some girl with horns… And when I look over there…" He then pointed to the bonfire the villagers were making, which had now been lit as it was dark enough outside. "…I see a girl…A girl with antlers, screaming and screaming the same name… over and over again…And…And it's not just there. I look at the moon, I look at a street light – I don't have to look at anything at all, but I still…I still hear it…" He started to breathe heavily.

I didn't understand what was going on. But at that moment, when Kei-chan was about to have a breakdown, I emulated Shion's embrace and pulled him as close to me as I could.

"Kei-chan… Stop. You don't have to listen."

"But…It's so loud….I can't…I can't shut it out…"

"Listen to me…" I spoke softly. "You don't have to listen… You just have to listen to my voice instead."

"Listen to…your voice?"

"Right… Just listen to my voice." I pulled him even closer, gently stroking the side of his face as he struggled with a voice in his head.

"Mion…You're…gonna choke me at this rate…Actually, go ahead… I'd rather die now before you find out… where my hand happened to land…"

I almost smiled. He'd said something typical, even though it came out in exasperated grunts. But he made no extraneous movement. He didn't move a muscle. And I continued to speak to him. I gave him typical responses. I gave him reassurances. I listened to him, and he listened to me. All so he'd stop hearing the voice in his head.

I knew this feeling. This intoxicating feeling, synonymous with love.

Shion had been there for me. I had to be there for Kei-chan. Because Kei-chan was suffering too. And just like Shion, I didn't have to understand why. I just knew he was hurting. And I had to heal him.

And in that moment, I knew.

I couldn't kill Kei-chan. I'd kill _myself_ before I'd kill Kei-chan. But Saturn Anne demanded Kei-chan.

Saturn Anne can go screw himself.

He can't have Kei-chan.

No one can.

And as long as he's still here, still alive, with me –

I don't care what happens to anyone else.

I looked past Kei-chan, and in the distance, standing under one of the trees, I saw him again – the man with red hair, now wearing the extravagant gold cape once again.

_You'll regret it.  
__Everyone will die and you'll be the only one left._

No…Because Kei-chan's going to be right here with me.

_This isn't how things should be.  
__You're making a mistake.  
__You're a fool.  
__You won't let them go._

If I have to, I will.

_You're lying.  
__You're going to regret it.  
__You can snap his neck. Right now.  
No one else needs to die.__  
__But you won't…?!_

I love him too much for that.

_You're a fool.  
__Love won't accomplish anything…  
__Love won't keep you from dying.  
__Love won't last forever.  
__Love will leave you empty.  
__Your heart will die and you'll never be the same…  
__He'll destroy you…!_

He's already destroyed me. But that's okay.

_He'll stomp on the leftovers until there's nothing left of you but a hollow shell!  
__You'll give up everything you've ever worked for, just for love?!  
__If you keep going like this __**you will die because of love! I guarantee it!  
**__Why do you not understand this?!_

That's fine. That's okay. It's alright.

As long as I can keep on loving Kei-chan like this –

"It's fine. I'll die whenever it's time... I'd never give it up. Not in a thousand years." I whispered.

The man was at a loss for words. And with a scowl, a mighty roar and a twist of his cape, he vanished. I felt that he would never return.

I could no longer feel his ice cold touch. All I could feel was Kei-chan's warmth. I'd known this sort of warmth once before. And now I realized that not only did I have the feeling of someone close to me, but I was sharing that very same feeling with someone else.

Warmth erases the cold. It drowns out our insecurities and paranoia. It makes us whole and saves us from our fears.

I don't need anything else. I don't care where things go from here. The murders can go on and on and I won't bat an eyelash. As long as he's here –

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

So that's the end of that… Well, the end of the _beginning _of that. The next episode will take place on the 20th, when Serika and Nero invade their hosts' bodies and all hell breaks loose. This chapter took extra long to write for two reasons: First, a particular game was released on the 24th of August that ate up the remainder of my free time. Second, I really didn't want to write another KeiichixMion scenario, but that's what I needed to have going… For this episode, at least. This was half finished when the 27th came around, but I finally got around to finishing it with bits and pieces of spare time.

Ok, so things about this one… I hope you're noticing the "sappy romance subplot to fridge horror" trend. That's kinda the theme of this entire arc, considering the opening chapter. But this one was especially weird because literally _nothing happens at all_ with regards to the forwarding of the mystery (…or does it?). This is going to be _the _slowest chapter in this story, but despite that this is the first point in the story where I actually get into what all of the metaphysical crap means this time around. As well as draw a few more Umineko parallels and make a ton of references that only a select few are going to get.

Remember, though, even though Battler is just the guy who gives you the facts at the end of each arc, that doesn't mean he's not important…


	8. Greatest Fear Chapter, Episode 2

...

Hm? What? Oh, wait I'm supposed to _update_ and eventually _finish _this fic? Whose crappy rules are those? Dead Fics for the win!

...*coughs*

A-Anyway, so yeah... After pretty much finalizing everything but the mystery portion of the story, and given how the Higu/Umi fanbase seems to be a bit scattered these days, I decided to more or less shaft this story entirely since I really didn't feel the need to write up an intricate mystery that not many people would get anything out of. Three months later, I decided 'hey, what the hell, I'm sick of writing for Persona anyway' and so _Dirge of the Hollow Forest_ is now back from the dead. Cool stuff.

Anyhow, I have yet to make amends to the various changes I've made, so I'm going to make mention of this all right now so when you start reading you don't suddenly go 'wait, what's going on where am I SOMEONE HELP ME' or something to that effect.

First, the date that Serika and Nero body hop is now June 27th. This is due to various things that happen in this chapter that make more sense with the changed date.

Second... Well, actually, that's about it. Enjoy reading this chapter - because it's got so much underlying stuff in it you'll probably have to read it, like, fifty times to find everything.

* * *

**Greatest Fear Chapter, Episode 2**

_3 Days Remain (June 27__th__, 1983)  
__Mion Sonozaki_

Honestly, I wonder where it all went wrong. Perhaps it was when I didn't turn down Saturn Anne's offer at the beginning or when I failed to notice the problems Kei-chan was having until it was far too late. I wonder if it was just a matter of my shortcomings that made everything turn out the way it has – or if there was something else that I didn't notice, that something else being the key to solving all of my problems at once.

But in the end, here I am, and here we are, still breathing, at least for the moment.

I know it's been awhile since I last spoke with you, so I'll fill you in on what's happened since last time.

Not very long after the Watanagashi Festival another murder took place in Okinomiya. There was a huge uproar about it because the killer was doubtlessly from Hinamizawa – at this point I don't even remember the details, and very likely there's no way I can verify them ever again – and there were talks of what was going to be done about it. It came to the point where I almost went to Oishi for support, as mortifying as it would have been. But after a certain amount of time had passed the authorities more or less washed their hands of the whole deal. They figured that if there was a feud, one identical to the Blue Mermaid incident, that the village and the city would be able to sort things among themselves.

I received a call from Saturn Anne only five days ago – he told me that because I'd waited so long that things were now out of his hands. He obviously knew how important Kei-chan was to me, and I ended up mincing words with him. But he was at least courteous enough to inform me days in advance that he was being forced to lead a mob into the village to end the panic with blood.

Kei-chan and the others ended up caught in this whole mess – a mess that I was partially responsible for. But in the end I had to deal with it – I couldn't kill Kei-chan, so it was useless to think of what could have been. It _wouldn't _have been, no matter how I looked at it.

Eventually the mob did indeed take to the village streets, but almost immediately went straight for where they believed the source of the problem was – the Sonozaki Estate, rather obviously. It took very little work for the Okinomiya mob to start raising hell, and so the mansion was the first victim of the rampage.

At that point I'd been hiding out with the others at the Furude Shrine – the mob certainly wouldn't head there, as many of the people in the mob were likely Oyashiro-sama believers themselves. Kei-chan needed to be tended to fairly regularly, as his condition never really improved after the festival. He told me at one point that the sounds were less intense, but I didn't really believe him considering how he never stopped sweating profusely. We ended up spending two nights there, waiting for things to blow over, only to hear the next morning that the leader, Saturn Anne, was dead and Kasai was being executed for retribution.

We almost attempted to return to the estate – we tried to get the authorities involved, but at this point they were all essentially under orders to ignore anything that came out of the village, a cry for help or otherwise. There was likely some string pulling going on, but regardless of where it was happening I wasn't any less furious. Saving Kasai was certainly a priority of ours at the time, but in the end we couldn't get close enough to the estate to save him.

In the end the Sonozaki Estate had more or less become an executioner's ground. From what little I had seen of my home it had been ransacked and anyone inside was likely killed much like Kasai.

I couldn't stand it – it was all simply too much for me. I wanted to just kill everyone in that mob, but in the end there wasn't really anything I could do.

Eventually the carnage continued as members of the mob started going from door to door demanding tribute, using Oyashiro as a guise for their actions. There was plenty of killing that went on during that period of time, but ultimately the worst of it was yet to come.

I didn't really get to see it for myself – but from what I had been told, there was some sort of natural gas rupture to the north – a rupture that caused a natural disaster that killed everyone in the village, including the members of the mob.

I hadn't seen it – I'd be dead if I had – but at any rate, I was still alive, hiding with the others in an underground portion of the Irie Clinic that I'd never seen before in my life. I was in hiding with Kei-chan, my sister, along with Satoko, Rika and Rena – that was essentially it, aside from Irie-sensei. We were the only ones who'd survived the explosion, and so we were the last surviving residents of Hinamizawa.

As we are now we've got enough food to keep us going for at least some time, but external contact is still impossible, so we don't have any means of replenishing it or simply leaving the clinic for that matter. We would have to wait things out until search parties were sent to find us.

As it is right now, I've found myself wondering if this all could've been avoided some other way. The idea that a demon was roaming the village was still incredibly unlikely, although Kei-chan's delusions would tell me otherwise. I began wondering if there really _was _some other way to determine who the killer had been, even though it had seemed so impossible. But in the end I couldn't do anything about it – it was far too late now for any of that to matter.

My family was destroyed, and only my sister remains. I have to protect her with everything I have – only then would I be able to live with myself, knowing that my personal feelings had destroyed my family. At least if Shion was still here, things would seem better than they were. They always did, after all.

Kei-chan is still here too. I still haven't really told him how I feel yet, but at this point I doubt it needs to be said at all. Kei-chan is relying on me simply because he doesn't have the power to rely on himself anymore – Irie can't cure him or even alleviate the pain in any way, especially considering how he has no access to the outside world, so all he has now is me. He's convinced that that's all he needs – I have to make that so.

Rika just seems happy that Satoko is here – I'm not sure why, but today she seems a bit uncaring about the whole situation. She's been spending most nights with Rena for reasons neither one of them would let me in on, but through all of that she seems to have become far too distant. Today was the strangest she's been so far, but then again this _is _Rika we're talking about here – she's likely just going through a phase or something. I can't really expect her to see the gravity of the situation as I do – she's just a kid, after all. She doesn't have any guilt weighing her down.

Today was simply another day living underground. The rooms could fit two people and had bathrooms, but they were still incredibly cramped. I didn't mind it all that much – at this point, leaving my room, walking next door, and watching Kei-chan while he sleeps is good enough for me.

The more I think about how things have seemingly fallen apart, I'm always drawn back to Kei-chan. There's little doubt in my mind that he was part of what kept me from falling to pieces – his parents had gone missing. They were both likely dead at this point .Yet even then he's still willing to carry on, even if it causes him so much pain. Even if he's on the brink of his threshold, barely keeping himself together. Without him, I'd probably have never handled this whole situation the way I have.

I owe Kei-chan far too much. I couldn't give him up for anything in the world.

I spend most of the day alone, not particularly wanting to interact with anyone – the novelty of the whole situation wore off some time ago. The reality of the situation was slowly setting in, even though for the moment we were all safe. If I panicked, nothing good would come of it. If I showed any signs of weakness, there would be nothing I could accomplish. I had to stay strong – if I didn't there would be no chance for survival if something _did _come after us.

But the more I thought about that sort of thing, the more I considered the possibility that even if I was at my best I wouldn't be able to save anyone regardless of that. There wasn't much indication that such an attack was impending, but there was certainly no way to know for sure – surely, what was left of the mob would try searching the surrounding buildings – unless, of course, they had already found what they were looking for and had taken off already. All they could've wanted would have been the death of the Sonozaki family – and so, as long as Shion and I were alive, there wasn't any sense of security whatsoever, even here, hidden fairly far underground.

The more I thought about how I should be acting – the less I wanted to act that way. And so here I am, reduced to the equivalent of a basement dweller, the idea of just wasting away like a sloth becoming all the more tempting.

I try to get the thought out of my head, but a certain someone feels the need to keep me on edge at all hours of the day.

"So? What will you do?" His voice rings out, as deep and as condescending as ever. "How, I wonder, will you make it out of a situation like this one?"

"I'll work something out." I reply, trying to ignore him to the best of my ability. But no – that would've been too simple. Instead, he has to complicate things by _not _shutting his mouth and egging me on even further.

"You had the chance to avoid all of this – but you chose to take the morally permissible route and here you are. You have a crush – that's what led you this far."

"You can demoralize what I've done as much as you want. Just go do it somewhere else."

"Hah, you can't run away from your circumstances, let alone from someone like me."

"That's why I'm asking you to leave. You're annoying."

He laughs again. "Shut the truth out all you want. You made a poor decision – your village is desecrated. Your family is dead. You are a part of what little remains of Hinamizawa. And you're the only one to blame here." He's said the same thing about forty times now, but it gets under my skin every time.

I made a choice. I decided to live with the consequences. And this guy's constant guilt-tripping only served to piss me off at this point.

"If that's the case, then what does it even matter?"

He raises an eyebrow.

"I'm guilty of a tremendous crime. I wasn't going to give Kei-chan up for anyone anyway. So what's the point of pointing something out that has no bearing on what I'm doing right now?"

"Ah, I see… So you haven't noticed it yet."

"…Noticed what?"

"Oh, nothing…" He trails off with a laugh.

"You're going to tell me – _now._"

"Hm… Nah, I think I'll wander off for a while."

I sigh with frustration. "You know what…? Fine. Go back to 1986 or wherever the hell you're from."

He turns as if to leave, but then stops in his tracks.

"Oh, wait a minute…"

"What now?" I sigh.

"Ihihihi, I'm in your head, dumbass! I can't go anywhere!"

I sigh with frustration once again. If this were someone who _wasn't _a figment of my imagination I'd probably have kicked their ass by now. But there was no way of knowing how long this guy would torment me if I _did _try to kick his ass. If it was even possible.

"Look…Battler, right?" I had to have at least memorized his name by now. "Can't you just… Be quiet or something? I'd actually like to get some sleep."

"You've been sleeping for the last seven days. How the hell are you going to get anything done at the rate you're going?"

"What are you even saying?"

"You can't _possibly _believe that this is all over, can you?" He spoke in a slightly more serious voice.

But his face suddenly lacked that exuberant douche-baggery that it had retained this entire time – he was dead serious now.

"There's not much I can do…" I admit defeat – there was no making excuses. Not when it came to Battler.

"You still don't have the motive to stay the course… Then tell me, why did you take this path to begin with?"

"You should know by now –"

"You let people die for the sake of one person? And did you have any idea what choosing Keiichi meant at the time? Or has it still have yet to sink in?"

"I'm not-"

"In Hinamizawa you weren't the only girl that was helplessly in love with someone. There were plenty of adolescent teenagers your age even in that village that were in the same boat you were. And your greed killed them – don't act as if the explosion's to blame. There wouldn't have been an explosion if you'd done what needed to be done."

"How can you even know something like that?!"

"**Had you turned Keiichi over, Hinamizawa would not have ended**. There, that's all the proof you need."

I sigh. He had a very strange way of going about things, but whenever he got like this it reminded me of the first time I saw him. He had been cruel and ruthless and I had been more afraid of him alone than I had been of anything before. But now – there's depth to him. Depth that I can't begin to understand… After all, someone who can speak the absolute truth – I can't even understand that alone, but whenever he speaks that way… I simply know what he's saying is the truth.

And since it's the truth I can't run away from it. He was right – every word was harsh and cruel, but he was justified with every single one of them.

"There's only one thing you can do." He continues. "You have to do it – you have to solve the unsolvable mystery."

"You make it sound like it's easy…" I smile wryly.

"The beast is chasing you. None of you will be safe for much longer."

"The beast?"

"The demon, of course."

My face falls. "So there _is _a demon, huh?"

I had never really considered the possibility that a demon _was _behind the attacks, but coming from Battler's mouth it sounded far more plausible for some reason. No matter how hard I steeled myself for the impact, I doubted it would do any good – I was only human, but on top of that I was a fragile human, hiding behind her false sense of hope. There was no way someone such as I could stand up to a demon and hope to do anything.

I curse under my breath. There wasn't a thing I was willing to do – but I had to do something… But what?

"There's a way… You just have to find it." Despite his encouragement I wasn't particularly inclined to believe him. It was funny, though – he'd spent so much time putting me down time after time, but now that things are different it's like he's a completely different person.

"Sounds like too much of a long shot to me."

"The demon has to be amongst you, correct?"

"What gives you that idea?"

"The rest of Hinamizawa was wiped out… By process of elimination, the demon should target what's left before it takes off."

"…That would make sense, but…"

Battler sighs. "Look, do you want to accept inevitable death?"

"…No, of course not."

"Do you want to lose Keiichi?"

"No."

"Do you want to accept that there's a demon loose down here?"

"No."

"Then you have to stop moping around…"

"But you've already told me how impossible things are, haven't you?"

"Just because facts are facts, that doesn't make them true. If you choose to believe in a demon, then for all intents and purposes a demon will exist. But as long as you keep fighting and never stop thinking, maybe there would be some point to all of it."

"I don't think it works that way…"

"But you don't _know _how the world works. You don't know a thing about it. I'm from the future, for fuck's sake."

I didn't have a response. Once again, he had a point.

"I challenged you directly – I shook your will and backed you into a corner. It was up to you to realize the corner didn't exist. But you stopped thinking. You stopped reasoning and fell into despair. And here you are. You accepted fate – that's something I'd figured you all learned never to do by now."

"I… stopped thinking?"

"You accepted that there was no way out. I tempted you with the easy way and told you there was no other way. And you accepted it all."

"Maybe I'm just not strong enough for that sort of thing…Maybe I'm just not the type to keep fighting until the very end."

"Bullshit." He raises his voice. I look at him, somewhat surprised at his sudden outburst. "If Keiichi's life were at risk you'd stop at nothing… And you most certainly aren't that selfless."

I laugh. "It figures I need someone like you to tell me that…"

"You don't understand." I look towards him again as he seems to have the need to bash my position on this matter as much as possible. "You lack the strength? You have no self control? You're a fragile girl ready to fall apart at the seams? That's a load of shit, and you know it."

"Then what am I, then?!" I shout. I've had about enough of this – I had to tell him off, but in the end I end up doing so from the heart. "I'm just someone who has no idea what to do with themselves. You think I don't know that I just made everyone live a few weeks longer? You think I can't understand that I made a huge mistake?! That Kei-chan won't ever return my feelings even if he wanted to because of how much pain he's in? That even now all I'm caring about is myself?! That I'm too afraid to think any other way?!"

"You know who you are?" I don't respond, so he continues. "You're Mion Sonozaki. That alone is enough."

"What does that even…" I trail off as I suddenly realize something.

That's right… My name. I'd been blinded by all of my faults that I failed to realize something – something that was the culmination of my life on this earth. I was Mion Sonozaki – I was the one true successor to the Sonozaki family. And even though the family was destroyed and left in tatters, I was still here…

I was still alive. That was my duty – to stay alive. To carry the good my family had done to the grave and beyond that. To restore the pride of the family – that was what that Oni-baba told me once a long time ago.

I was Mion Sonozaki. I had made that the case. I had taken my sister's name… Shion, my precious sister. A woman who was on an entirely different level from what I could ever hope to achieve. And here I was, the one who was meant to command, wasting away, waiting for my inevitable death to take me.

But my death wasn't inevitable.

I'm not dead right now, am I?

It doesn't matter what's going to happen.

I am Mion Sonozaki. I was born to lead the Sonozaki family into the future. I would build the family's future – and so I would build my own future.

Staying strong simply wasn't enough. My personal facades wouldn't achieve anything. I couldn't rely on others anymore – I was the head of the Sonozaki family.

It was like Battler said. I was backed into a corner…

But there is no corner. I'm not helpless. I'm not at the end of my rope.

I love Kei-chan. I love Shion and Satoko and all the others.

And so I have to act. I have to act, otherwise that corner would be very real. I had to act or face annihilation.

I had to fight a demon.

But there was no demon.

There's no such thing.

And I, Mion Sonozaki, would have to prove it.

"…You're absolutely right." I finally speak.

He almost smiles. "Your fate lies before you. But do you think you have the capacity to break through a steel wall with nothing more than the skin on your bones?"

"I don't know." I admit. "But I'll find out, won't I?"

"Then you have your task set out before you. You don't have much time – you have to begin now."

"I know."

I rise to leave my room, leaving an uncharacteristically pensive Battler in the room behind me.

* * *

_2 Days Remain (June 28__th__, 1983)  
__Mion Sonozaki_

My efforts seem to have led to no avail. There isn't any sign of any suspicious activity down here – I figured that Irie-sensei had all sorts of things down here that he had been hiding from the family, but it seemed as if that wasn't the case. The layout of the lower part of the clinic was perfectly square and had an even number of rooms along each wall – I checked for hidden passages and such in all the places the building's structure could possibly call for, but I never found anything. There was apparently no way a demon could just sneak up on us through standard means. Although if I _was _dealing with a demon, couldn't it just phase through walls or something?

There's a degree of doubt in my mind, even now, that we're being chased by a demon. Battler seems certain we're being hunted down by someone, but the more I think about it and the more I understand the area around me the less likely it seems that a demon is involved.

Today I manage to find myself wandering near Shion's room. Her voice was evidently back to normal, although she still didn't seem her usual self – it only occurred to me a short while after I notice that that I realized that _her _entire family was gone as well. And despite that, she hadn't been moping around as I had. I felt incredibly immature for how little action I took before now – although in my defense, Shion doesn't have an annoying wizard shouting insults into her ear at all hours of the day.

I enter to check on her – she's fast asleep, even though it's about three in the afternoon. I smile somewhat – I had to admit that watching someone's normal sleeping face was relaxing, especially considering how painful Kei-chan's sleeping seems to be…

It suddenly occurs to me that I haven't checked on Kei-chan at all today. I'd been sneaking around the clinic all the previous night as per Battler's encouragement, so I'd pretty much avoided him the entire evening.

I turn to leave, and as I reach for the door suddenly a hand closes around my neck…!

I struggle to break free, but the hand's grip was far too strong. I try ramming myself into the person behind me with my back, but they use their other hand to keep me still…!

Was this –

…Oh, no, it was just Shion.

In a few moments she lets me go, laughing at the same time.

"What the hell was that for?" I ask her, my irritation apparent in my voice.

"Hey, you snuck up on me while I was sleeping. It was your own fault." I could tell from the sound of her voice that she was actually relieved that it was only me that had entered her room. "So…What did you want?"

"I was wandering around, and I passed your room, so I figured I'd pay my darling sister a visit. And then you tried to choke me. That's about it."

She laughs again. "What, were you not expecting to get attacked? No one gets within twelve feet of me when I'm asleep – you should know that by now."

I'm suddenly reminded of Shion's time at St. Lucia Academy – she evidently attacked anyone who wandered into her room while she was sleeping. I'm not sure why I don't have the same absurd hearing – since, you know, being able to wake up at the sound of a door opening has its uses – but at any rate Shion did and, unfortunately for whoever had the severe misfortune of being her roommate, she put it to extreme usage. Since she was away from home she likely defaulted to her old habit – but ironically enough, the only place where she could sleep without a care in the world was one of the least safe places in Hinamizawa.

"Yeah, whatever… I won't be bothering you again, so have a nice nap." I leave, shutting the door behind me, muffling Shion's pleading for me to stay awhile.

I make my way towards Kei-chan's room, which coincidently enough was reflected against Shion's room on the opposite side of the hallway. Without making any unnecessary noises, I enter his room to find him wide awake, although still somewhat in a daze.

"You're up early." I joke, hoping to get a usual rise out of him.

"It's already three… I overslept. Thanks to you." He struggles to smile. "Where were you? I was… getting worried."

"O-Oh…I'm sorry, I was just wandering around… I forgot to stop by." It hadn't occurred to me that Kei-chan pretty much relied on me for his time of day – although he apparently already knew it was past three, despite there being no sort of clock in this room.

I put two and two together. "Was Irie-sensei in here earlier?" I ask him.

"No, actually… Rika was in here before. She asked me how I was feeling and if she needed to do anything… The typical stuff."

That seemed a bit odd to me – Rika was holed up in her room with Rena – the two of them had told me in advance that they weren't going to wander the halls until Rena decided that Rika was safe. She had to have snuck out or something.

"I'd go looking for her, if I were you." Kei-chan speaks through a small coughing fit. "There's no telling if someone down here's out to get her."

"I know…" I nod my head. "But can't we trust Irie-sensei?"

"I wouldn't… Although that's just me and my fucked up visions."

"Did you…See something else?"

Kei-chan grimaces. I regret pressing him for details before he speaks again. "He was… I'm not sure what he was doing but he… he was standing over someone… he was going to kill them, I think. He looked a bit deranged… I don't think it's anything important."

I almost let my concern show, but I quickly agree with him. "Yeah, that's probably the case… After all, I don't have black hair, do I?"

"I thought…Eh, whatever." He leans back on the bed.

"What, going back to sleep already? You've gotten lazy."

"Well, you kept me up all night…" His face suddenly contorts, but only for a moment. It seems that he regrets saying that.

"I'm sorry…I really should've checked in on you."

He shakes his head. "It's fine… Really…" With that, he shuts his eyes. I decide to leave him with that – at least he was alright, even if just for the moment.

"Ah, Mion…?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you… Leave the door open? Just a little? The light in here is really dim…"

"Oh, alright." I almost laugh – did Kei-chan need a night light? Was he that much of a little kid…?

…Oh, of course he did. Because if he stared into the darkness for too long he'd see that apparition again.

I quickly swallow my joke, thankfully keeping this one to myself as Kei-chan's circumstances become all the more apparent to me. I mentally slap myself for being so inconsiderate – I needed to pay more attention to things.

I leave his room and head down the hall.

I decide to head to Rena and Rika's room to see if Rika had returned at this point. But as I walk down the hallway I suddenly trip on what seemed to be some spilled soda and fall, landing just in front of the door to my destination. I hit my head fairly hard, but luckily not on the door. I stand, but as I do so my vision swims slightly and I almost lose my balance. I blink a few times and it returns to normal –

But then I see –

I see something, just down the hallway – I see someone… Someone I've never seen before.

He stands there, wearing a black trench coat and a black hat that conceals most of his face. But his eyes – I can see his eyes. His eyes – glowing with an unnatural yellow, piercing through me with a gaze as steady and vibrant as the moon. The more I stare into his eyes the more I'm captivated – but not in a particularly good way. But the more I look at him, the more I see something familiar, but I can't place it, no matter how hard I try.

He smiles – although it's more like a grin than a smile. He points over his shoulder to a door that I didn't recall seeing the night before. A door that seems old and out of place and a tad darker than all the rest, and clearly out of use due to the rust building at its corners – and just like that he vanishes, leaving me alone in the hallway.

I wasn't hallucinating _more _evil men in elaborate clothing, was I?

But that door – the door I'd never seen before, is still there. I almost think my mind is playing tricks on me, but the door seemed ever so real.

I have to confirm that it's there… I have to try to open it. I have a feeling that it'll be locked, but if it is indeed there –

I walk towards the door slowly, the emptiness of the hallway starting to shake my will. I'm alone, even though only a moment ago a man I'd never seen before was only a few feet away. What if he _wasn't _a hallucination? What if he was trying to kill me? What if I was in danger?

I walk towards the door despite my fear. As I draw closer the dead silence finally breaks, as I hear the draft of air passing through the hall. It almost sounds like a low, painful moan…

I draw closer to the door. And then I hear it – the sound of footsteps? No, this was the sound of clanging metal, huge metal objects at that, somewhere from beyond that door. As I draw closer the clanging grows louder and louder until it seems that the source is just beyond the door.

The fact that I'm alone in this hallway right now only sinks in at this moment… I'm in danger now, aren't I? And I'm alone… And there's no one to turn to…

I could turn around right now – I could turn around right now and go back to my room. I could go find Shion and I could spend the day with her. I could even stick to my original plan and find Rika – as long as I didn't open this mysterious door. I had a feeling – a feeling that opening this door meant going past the point of no return. I had a feeling that opening this door would certainly spell my doom…

_Turn back, Mion.  
__Turn away.  
__Don't open that door…  
__You're making a mistake.  
__You can feel it…  
__You know what'll happen if you open that door…_

I hesitate… I hesitate, making the same mistake I've been making this entire time. I could open the door –but what would be on the other side? Two metal objects on chains hitting each other because of the draft? Or perhaps… Perhaps someone carrying a ball and chain, covered in blood?

I force myself to believe the former, and I find my hand slowly tightening around the cold iron doorknob.

But then Battler appears.

"Wait…" He speaks in a low voice, as if whatever was making the sound could be alerted to his presence. "Careful… One false move it and it will be too late."

"What?" I whisper back.

"I'm sorry, but… You can't open that door."

"…And why can't I?"

"Let me make things simple…" He trails off as I stare at the rusted doorknob, begging to be turned, but at the same time tricking me into turning it. "If you open that door… I'm sorry, but opening that door will bring our time here to an end."

"W-What…?!"

"If you open that door… The truth will be made apparent to you, but as an immediate result, your life will end."

I stare at the black door, no longer with a sense of wonder, but with terror.

"Just beyond this door…" I whisper, trailing off.

Mere inches away from me, concealed only by this iron door, was my death. I was literally knocking on death's door, inviting that which at this very moment I feared more than anything else in the world… The sound I'm hearing, even now – it's the sound of the end of my life, slowly yet steadily growing louder and louder.

"Just beyond that door is certain death… If you meditate for too long your death might be guaranteed anyway."

Once that sunk in, my heart began to beat faster. With each second, the possibility of that door opening on its own and my death greeting me head-on was all the more apparent. With every pang in my chest came the chance that the door would open…

"B-But…I'm…"

I'm Mion Sonozaki. I'm supposed to challenge things like this head on…

The sound suddenly stops. My heart almost stops as well. But the door has yet to open.

"If you believe that your death is worth coming to understand the truth, open that door. Fulfill your role as Mion Sonozaki… if you truly believe that is what you want to do."

"But…Are you sure…?"

"I'll say it for you…"

"…No, please… I don't think I could stand it if you did…"

He nods his head in silence, carefully watching me for any sign of my ultimate response. "There's not much time left…" He warns, eventually fading away into the darkness himself.

There is nothing but the sound of the drafting air. There is nothing but that low sound. My heart is still beating faster than it had ever before as I can feel death creeping up on me. At this point all the hairs on the back of my neck are standing in attention and despite my efforts to not make a sound my breathing was slowly getting heavier. I wasn't blinking – I'd go into shock if this moment lasted any longer.

I hear a much louder clang – and then the door shakes.

This is it Mion. Do and die. Or don't.

…

I back away from the door. I slowly turn around. I walk down the hallway, trying to put as much distance between myself and my fate behind me. I walk down the hallway, my heart beating as fast as possible…

Only a few more feet…

Just a few more…

Only a little longer... Then I can run away as fast as I want...

…

…

…and then with a crash the door opens!

I take off with a flash, slamming Kei-chan's door shut as I round the corner, running faster than I've ever run before, heading straight for Shion's room…!

I can hear clanging, loud clanging, faster and louder, behind me…!

The demon… The demon is behind me…! It's right behind me; it's going to kill me…!

I don't dare to turn around; if I did I'd most definitely die!

I keep running as fast as I can. I find Shion's door, slightly ajar…!

Please, please be there… Please be alive…!

As I approach the door a thought goes through my head.

What if everyone else was already dead?!

What if someone killed everyone while I was rounding that corner?!

What if I was the only one left?!

I don't…

I don't want to die…!

I almost run headfirst into the door, but I manage to regain my composure for long enough to open the door and slam it shut behind me, locking it all in one fast and frantic motion. I face the door, almost too afraid to turn around and see what's become of my precious sister…

The clanging sound suddenly stops. I can no longer hear it.

I break down right then and there.

"Mion…?"

I eventually turn upon hearing her voice – there she is, my sister, perfectly fine. A little dazed from having been asleep so long, which in itself is all her fault because she's so damn lazy… But perfectly fine.

Wordlessly she accepts me into her arms after one look at my tear stricken face. She asks for no explanation. She simply accepts me, right then and there.

I love my sister…

I couldn't possibly have made it this far without her…

And now, I need her… And as long as I have her, I think things will be alright.

* * *

_Seven Hours Later_

Eventually, once everything had settled down, we decided to gather on the upper level for the first time in a few days to talk over what I had seen. It would seem that the door that had appeared out of virtually nowhere had vanished about as quickly as the sounds did, but Kei-chan and Rena both testified to having heard the metallic noises that I had. I ended up keeping quiet about the door, but we ended up talking with Irie-sensei, who told us we could hang around the actual basement for the first time since our confinement.

He also demanded that we have medical checkups in case any of us were affected by the poison gas in any way. Rika was expressing concern over Satoko's shots while I had been on some sort of medication Irie-sensei had been giving me since mid May – everyone else didn't receive anything particularly out of the ordinary, especially considering how Kei-chan couldn't be on any kind of medication whatsoever. But once all of the formalities were out of the way Irie-sensei could talk things over with us.

"So what've we got so far?" He starts off, having been clued into the least amount of details regarding what I had seen only a few hours ago.

"Mii-chan saw someone, right?" Rena looks at me, letting me know that I could speak without restriction.

"Ah…Yeah, it was right after I left Kei-chan's room…" I began to explain the entire situation, aside from the bit about the door. "I'm not sure what the noise we all heard was, but… I did see someone who I'm pretty sure wasn't supposed to have been here."

"What'd the guy look like?" Kei-chan inquires. It seems that despite his condition he was ready and raring to go – he was far too rash for his own good, but I was in no place to criticize him.

"He… I think he was wearing some kind of coat. And a hat." I left out the bit about his eyes – I'm pretty sure my already deteriorating mental state had some strange damage on whoever it was that I'd actually seen, but at any rate I had to assume that he was real, so I had to give the most realistic account of his visage as possible.

Oddly enough, Rika and Rena exchange very odd glances as I describe the figure.

"Well, I'm certainly not aware of anyone like that down here." Irie seems to brush off my account as a hallucination.

"You don't have to be." Rika suddenly speaks up, oddly out of character. "…Maybe I saw someone like that too."

"While you were out wandering around… You see how reckless you were being?!" Rena voices her concern.

"Wait, so Rika's seen your ghost too… I guess that makes him not a ghost." Shion says with a shrug.

"But do you have any idea who this person is?" Irie questions her, very clearly taken aback by her statement.

"You don't have any idea? Of who could be down here, trying to kill us?" Rika sighs when Irie doesn't answer – once again being incredibly out of character, might I add – and glances around the room, apparently interested in what we had to say.

"…Saturn Anne?" Kei-chan suddenly speaks up.

Rika looks at him, confusion apparent in her gaze. "…That's right."

"Wait, Kei-chan… How do you know –" I try to pry, but Kei-chan interrupts me mid-way.

"When someone's going out of their way to kill someone in the least conspicuous way possible, they tend to let you know in advance."

"Wait, so he…" I stop myself. But everyone wants me to finish my sentence.

Saturn Anne – he set me up? He _told _Kei-chan that he'd be killed?

And he was going to send me to do the job –

But maybe he knew? Maybe he knew that this would happen? That Kei-chan would eventually confront me, and that he would do so at the most vital moment?

Right now, if I say the wrong thing…

…I see – this is Saturn Anne's final trick.

"Mii-chan?" Rena is the first one to speak. "Did he tell Keiichi-kun something? … Something that you knew about?"

"I don't…"

"Mii-chan…" Rena looks at me, her gaze clouded by something – something that I'd never seen in her eyes before. It was likely suspicion. But Rena – she's always trusted me, so I've never seen her like this… "Won't you tell us? Or is it something that –"

"Rena." Kei-chan suddenly raises his voice. "That's enough. Mion has nothing to do with anything that went on in Okinomiya. We both know that, don't we?"

Rena quiets down.

I quickly glance around the room. If there was any hint of suspicion in any of their gazes, Kei-chan effectively removed it. But Rika seemed poised at the ready to defend me as well, but she decided to back off for whatever reason.

"I received a nasty phone call a few days before the festival. He told me he was out for my blood. I told him he was full of himself. Two weeks later, he's got his head on a pike and I'm hanging around twenty feet underground. Neither one of us made it out all that well."

"Is that all…?" Rena apparently wasn't sold. I almost gave her a questioning gaze – why was she doing this? Why was she so willing to incriminate me like this? Something was just plain _wrong _with her, but I couldn't call her out on it – I'd probably just let things blow over. I have no way of knowing what's going through her head right now, especially considering how _she _lost everything she had as well.

"That's all… But if he's somehow still alive, we all need to be really careful." Even though he could barely think straight, Kei-chan was being a more effective leader than I ever could. It was actually rather ironic.

"So what'll we do?" I ask him.

"For now, let's just all get some sleep. Satoko already rigged all of our rooms with her traps, right?"

She nods her head in response. "Yep, they're all set. If anyone tries to open any of our doors when we're sleeping, they'll go off."

"So there…" Kei-chan sighs, his physical condition catching up with him for a brief moment. "Now if you'll all excuse me, I need my seventeen hours of sleep." With that rather dark joke, he leaves for the lower level.

None of us had anything else to add, and so we all went our separate ways, with Rena's strange responses apparently having set off everyone else in the group as well. At least I knew I wasn't the only one who thought she was speaking strangely.

Some time later, after I had more or less already retired to bed, Battler suddenly reappears.

"So is it true?" I ask him. "Is it really Saturn Anne who's wandering around down here?"

"**Saturn Anne is dead**." He speaks matter-of-factly.

"I had a feeling… Then who is it?"

"I can't tell you."

"But you _can_, can't you? You have to."

He smiles. "Then I _won't _tell you. How about that?"

"You know it'd make things a lot easier if you were a bit more vocal."

"There's only so much a figment of your imagination can do for you." He sighs, shrugging his shoulders. "…But I _can_, and _will, _tell you one thing."

"And what's that?"

"Right now, as we speak, the forces conspiring against us are preparing to make a move."

"So they're going to attack? Tonight?"

"If I told you before the hour was up… Would you believe me?"

"Before the hour…?! So soon?!"

"There's too much fog covering the truth right now, I'm afraid. There's no way to know how…" He grimaces. "I have a feeling your encounter with that man was the one chance we had to expose the truth… Not that I'd expect you to have taken it."

"But there _has _to be some other way!"

He shakes his head. "Right now, **there's no possibility that all your friends will survive**. That's the fact of the matter…"

I clench my fist. "Then is there a way we can make it possible?"

"**No, there isn't. Blood will be shed. Your friends' blood will be shed. **At this point, we have to let it happen and learn from our mistakes. Only then can we uncover the truth."

I sigh with defeat. "If there really isn't another way…"

"But be careful. The longer we wait, the more obscured the truth will become. And once enough fog sets in the demon will be very real."

"I see… So we've got a time limit too, huh?"

My thoughts are interrupted by a knock on my door. I'd left my door slightly ajar in the event that someone wanted to find me before I fell asleep.

I open the door – but there is no one there.

"What the hell…?"

"Be careful." Battler speaks in a low whisper. "The fog grows thicker… Find your way out, or face your fate." With that, on yet another cryptic note, he vanishes into the darkness.

I look around the hallway –

And walking down the corridor on the far side is Satoko, apparently in a hurry. I call out to her and she stops dead in her tracks. Once she realizes I was the one who called out to her she relaxes. Closing my door behind me I walk towards her.

"Where're you going?"

"I…Well, I couldn't get to sleep." She confesses rather readily. I was happy that at least Satoko still trusted me after the business earlier. "I've been hearing really strange things from the boiler room, and I was going to go check it out."

"On your own? Without anyone to watch you?"

"I didn't think anyone would take me seriously."

"Then I'll go down with you right now…" I almost consider scolding her for making such a baseless assumption, but I decide to stow it for later.

Without another word, we head for the lower level. The strangest thing about this lower level was that it consisted of nothing but a boiler room and a door that apparently went nowhere. Why someone had gone out of their way to spend more money on building an entire additional basement than they would have by just extending the basement was beyond me, but evidently the clinic was constructed by people who had enough time and money to spend. The boiler room itself was roughly underneath Satoko's room, and so would definitely make a lot of noise, but Satoko's concern implied that she was hearing very different sounds – and so there we were, in the middle of the plain hallway with nothing with the door to the boiler room at the far end.

"Might as well get this over with." She speaks up, opening the door to the boiler room with a little difficulty. "I'll let you know if there's anyone inside." She jokes.

"Don't take too long, alright?"

She nods her head and flips the light switch against the wall, lighting up the boiler room.

"Nope, no one in sight."

"I'll be waiting right outside, okay? You figure out what caused the sound."

Satoko disappears into the boiler room as I turn around, peering into the darkness in front of me. I hear her close and lock the door behind her, so even if by some miracle I didn't notice someone creeping up on us she'd be safe either way.

I stand there, staring forward, watching closely for any sign of movement. It most certainly wasn't safe down here, but if Satoko could verify the source of that sound – perhaps even that same metal clanging noise I'd heard before – I could probably make some serious progress. For now, though, I just had to stand guard – I had to protect Satoko. I could do that, at the very least.

But suddenly, out of the blue, I heard loud footsteps. For a moment I was on guard, but after considering the situation I relaxed. There was no way someone who was trying to sneak up on me would make this much noise. In a matter of moments, Rika and the others appear from within the darkness and make their way over to me.

"And what're you doing down here?!" Shion expresses her concern.

"Where's Satoko?" Rika asks with a tinge of urgency in her voice.

I explain to them how Satoko had been investigating noises in the boiler room on her own until I found her in the hallway.

"So she's in there right now? Alone?"

"We checked for anyone hiding in the room. There wasn't anyone there. The door was unlocked and everything. I'm standing here so no one makes it past me… But what're _you _all doing here?"

"You and Satoko both go missing from your rooms – the last thing we need is for either of you to turn up dead." Shion still seems fairly concerned for Satoko's safety. I don't respond initially, but in a matter of moments I lose my chance to as Shion knocks on the door to the boiler room.

But Satoko doesn't respond.

"…Mion, are you _sure _you –"

"_Of course _I'm sure, but… She's only been in there for a few minutes –"

Not even a moment passes by. Shion moves to break down the door, and after slamming herself into it enough times the door comes crashing down. The entire time Satoko didn't make a sound…!

Of course. Before the night was up –

I push Shion out of the way as I enter the boiler room first – the light was off. Satoko had left the light on so she could see…!

And there she was –

Her eyes empty, her skin cold, her mouth slightly open, her body lifelessly sprawled out on the floor – and her head… Severed from her shoulders, shifted into an unnatural position.

I let out a scream as the others enter the room…

No, no – this wasn't supposed to happen… Not to Satoko…

Whoever you are – take _me _instead. Aren't I the one you want…?!

Ah, but of course – they _would _have me. They would even have me on a silver platter. After my friends cut me up.

There was no one in the room. There was no way anyone could've gotten past me…!

It had to have been me.

I was the only one who could kill Satoko…!

As if she read my mind, Rena turns to me and points the proverbial finger.

"Mii-chan…You…You…!"

"_Enough_!" Kei-chan's voice suddenly rings out. For a moment I hadn't even realized that he'd been there. But there he was, once again coming to my defense. "Mion _did not _do this!"

Shion, without even paying any of us any mind, slams herself into the other door – the door that was impossible to open.

"Wait, Shion –"

She doesn't pay me any mind whatsoever and slams herself into the door once more – and with some degree of inhuman strength, she knocks the door off its hinges, revealing a path into the previously hidden depths of the clinic…

"Through here." She gasps. "Our target's through here." Without another thought she bolts down the newly revealed pathway, vanishing into the darkness.

Without thinking I run after her – there was no way in hell I was going to lose my sister. Not after I'd failed to notice Satoko's death approaching her. I had to save Shion and, ignoring Rika's shouts, I head into the darkness following her.

Of _course _it made no sense for an entire level of a building to consist of nothing but a boiler room. That was because that had never been the case to begin with. And now here I am, running through a seemingly endless hallway as fast as my legs could carry me. There were doors lining this hallway – but all of them were shut tight. I wasn't entirely sure how many there were – the dim lighting made it hard enough to see as it was.

But at the very end of the hallway, there was a large room with its own lighting that sat behind two very large steel doors. I knew that Shion was beyond those doors, but I wasn't sure how she'd gotten them open –

Only then did I notice – the light trail of blood that went under the door – was Shion injured? Or had Satoko's killer really come this way?

I enter the room without a second thought – and there she is, my sister, with her leg sliced open, withstanding the pain and pressing herself against a large window of see-through glass…

And just beyond that glass –

I almost couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Shion had been chasing Satoko's killer – but it was clear to me that she had given up that chase… Instead, she was brought into a state of pure shock at the sight that lay before her, quite literally at that.

I couldn't see her face. I had no idea of what was going through her mind at that moment, although I had several fairly accurate ideas.

I found myself forgetting all about chasing Satoko's killer in that moment – because now I was fairly sure I knew exactly who they were regardless of how well this wild chase had gone.

Just beyond that glass, neatly tucked into a straight jacket and placed on a hospital bed, was Satoshi Houjou, Satoko's sister and Shion's most beloved, his face ever peaceful and his eyes seemingly sealed shut. He was simply lying there, alive and well, although attached to an IV and being kept barely alive. At his side was a large stuffed teddy bear – considering the day he'd gone missing, there was no doubt in my mind who it was for – but now that person could never receive it. Only because the person who'd placed him here had ensured that himself.

"Shion…?" I call out to her.

She turns to face me… Her face is almost too painful to look at. Her eyes are wide. Her mouth is hanging open slightly – she looks so lost and confused.

And why? Because Satoshi was here. He was alive. And his precious sister was dead.

"I'm sorry…" I almost start crying myself.

"No…No, it's not your fault…" Shion barely manages to speak as she crashes into me, her emotions too wild for her to keep in check. "My promise…My promise was mine to keep. Not yours…"

After a few moments of silence, she suddenly speaks again. Her voice quiet, yet furious.

"Irie Kyosuke… We're going to kill him."

I nod my head as she buries her face into my chest.

And behind the glass, Battler appears, standing over Satoshi.

"This isn't over…" He whispers, gazing at Satoshi with some emotion hidden in his gaze. "You believe you have the answer… But without love, the truth cannot be seen."

And with that he vanishes, leaving me to my thoughts.

It wasn't until now, after Satoko's death finally had the chance to sink in and after we found Satoshi that I really began to fear for all of our lives. Deep down I tried to pass off my experience in the hallway as another hallucination, but now things were very real.

It was just as Battler had said. The further time marched on the darker and more desperate things would become. If I didn't do anything soon, it would be far too late.

But I had a feeling, deep down, that it was already too late.

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

So... yeah, that's about it for right now. The next chapter might be a bit shorter than this one in general... Although the last time I said that it was almost twice the length, so... Whatever, the length isn't important. Anyhow, as I've mentioned several times I'm now running a second fic over in the Persona section, and so with two stories running at the same time my updating schedule (*snicker*) is going to get a bit of a revamp. For right now, I'm sticking to this story for at least the next three arcs. Once I hit the Answer Arc portion of the story, I'm going to wait for input on the culprit identity before going any further, but expect a decent chunk of time to be spent on the other fic despite how quickly (*laughs haughtily*) the response for this is.


	9. Greatest Fear Chapter, Episode 3

**Greatest**_** Fear Chapter, Episode 3**_

_1 Day Remains (June 29__th__, 1983)  
__Mion Sonozaki_

Shion and I left that room without another word. Our retreat from that area apparently triggered two massive blast doors to seal the path behind us, leaving no way to access Satoshi's room. When the others questioned us, we didn't give them any straight answers – there wasn't any point in telling them that Irie-sensei was the killer we'd been searching for – after all, in a few hours he'd be dead and all of this would finally be over. We had no idea of how long it would take before we could leave this underground bunker, but at least there would be no threat of us dying anymore – but still, Battler's words concerned me more than anything else.

He said that 'without love, the truth cannot be seen.' I hadn't the slightest idea as to what that might've meant, but if it meant 'look into Irie's past before killing him' I figured that I could manage. Of course, this was a short time before I found out that I _couldn't_, as Irie wouldn't budge on the subject – he was clearly trying to hide something from me, although I couldn't figure out what, nor did I have any ideas to what he could've been hiding. There was little doubt in my mind after all of that – he was the one we were looking for. But at this point I simply couldn't prove it – Satoshi's imprisonment is one thing, but proving that he could kill Satoko was something entirely different.

After all – wasn't that back door locked? Wasn't that hallway deserted? Shion seemed so convinced that the killer had been just past that door, but there wasn't anyone in that hallway. That door that had magically vanished, provided that it had been real, would've been a decent way for him to escape to the upper level as if he'd never left in the first place. But I couldn't find a way to place him down on that lower level – after all, the only way to it was through the boiler room. And he most certainly didn't get past me.

_No one_ got past me, in fact. Satoko confirmed that there was no one in the room. The door was locked when she closed it. No one got around me. When Shion opened the door, she was just…dead. That was the only way to describe it – I didn't hear a sound or anything else for that matter. She simply died. I can't describe it in any other way.

After the attack, the others went to inform Irie of the damage, but Shion and I held back – we couldn't exactly kill him in front of everyone, but Shion wouldn't be able to hold back. We couldn't exactly prove the Satoshi angle either as there was no way to get back to where he was being held as far as we could tell. We ended up just heading back to our rooms. Satoko's traps were all still in place, so we could sleep soundly at least in that respect. None of us were sure what to do at that point – Rena was still dubious of me while Rika seemed to have taken to ignoring the situation altogether. In the end it's best to say that none of us really knew how to handle one of our close friends dying. Especially when another was a prime suspect, even though at this point Shion and I knew otherwise.

I knew that Irie was behind all of this. But the more I thought about it, the more impossible it seemed for him to be the one who killed Satoko. There simply wasn't anyone else down there… As far as things are concerned, _I'm _the only one who is capable of being Satoko's killer. I know that a notion like that is meant to put me on edge – it's all a ploy that someone like Irie would be able to engineer without much issue, although the more I think about the way Kei-chan constantly has to come to my defense it seems as if the circumstances are more related to Saturn Anne. The man is dead, but clearly he wanted me to suffer for turning him down… But even then, if he knew Kei-chan well enough to have contacted him himself without fear, he had to have seen this result. He had to have known that Kei-chan would come to my defense every time. Irie, on the other hand, didn't know him that well… Of course, Irie hadn't been the one to single him out amongst the shady individuals that populate Hinamizawa.

Irie was hiding Satoshi under his clinic, likely since he had gone missing. Saturn Anne was trying to turn my friends on me even though he likely knew such a thing was impossible. I didn't know what to make of either things – in the end I decided that Irie was the more stable threat, though, as he was rather obviously still alive, even if now only for the time being. Of course, with that in mind I constantly had to bring myself to recall that it was impossible for Irie to kill Satoko. We could kill him whenever we pleased, but we ended up holding back as it still wasn't all that possible for him to have been Satoko's killer as far as we could tell. Shion would lose more than enough sleep over trying to prove him otherwise, but if things went the way they seemed to be going there wouldn't be any sleep for her to lose.

The fog that Battler had mentioned was likely already extremely thick. But there was no such thing as a demon, at least not yet, at any rate. So that means that someone was definitely a killer – someone human. There was no way that a demon had killed her. There was no way.

But then who else? Me? Had I gone so insane that I hallucinated _not _killing Satoko? I doubted that severely, although the moment Kei-chan isn't around to agree with me on that, I'm not sure what I'll end up doing. That's why nothing can happen to him.

As I mulled things over on my way down the hallway with Shion at my side, I began wondering – perhaps now that I'd accepted that the Irie angle had nothing to substantiate it other than Satoshi's presence, which Battler pretty much said – practically in wizard code, mind you – wasn't enough to incriminate him, then maybe I should examine the Saturn Anne side of things one more time.

Saturn Anne wanted me to kill Kei-chan. The reasons for that are still extremely unclear. I can't come up with a single reason for why he'd want Kei-chan of all people dead, but there had to be some significance to that alone. He'd even called Kei-chan over the phone to let him know how things were going to happen, although I won't know the specifics unless I ask Kei-chan directly. Saturn Anne, as I've already established, likely knew that Kei-chan would come to my defense in the event that I began to cast an even remotely suspicious shadow. He knew that I'd be relying on Kei-chan to more or less survive in these conditions – after all, Rika and Rena would've eaten me alive if Kei-chan hadn't gotten them off my back.

Saturn Anne should want to punish me for betraying him, right? So then shouldn't he have been satisfied with my friends turning against me? Or maybe he _didn't _know how Kei-chan was going to react? But he had specifically ordered me to kill him, and knew the significance of Kei-chan to me personally. He'd assumed that there would be no issues with me being able to kill Kei-chan – he knew everything, even if he'd only briefly alluded to it in a statement like that.

He knew everything about Kei-chan. He knew this would happen. So he didn't want to punish me.

There was no sign of consequence. By letting Kei-chan live… He would come to my aid without a moment's notice? There was no visible consequence, aside from the razing of the village. But having turned him down, he likely knew that I was ready and willing to let the village die in Kei-chan's place anyhow.

Then…

Was he trying to send me a message instead?

Was his message his way of expressing his true reasons for wanting Kei-chan dead?

Having Kei-chan save me, time and time again –

What significance did that have to an outsider like Saturn Anne?

I'd never know now – the man in question was dead, and there was no way to ever confirm just what he wanted me to understand.

There's not much I can do now – the wheels are already turning. I can't reason out anyone's motives. I'm just not cut out for this sort of thing. I'm not one to take initiative in situations like this – I guess that I'm really _not _cut out to be Mion Sonozaki. But I had to keep going –

"It's very simple." Battler's voice suddenly rings out. I almost stop to turn to him, but I suddenly recall that Shion is only a foot away. "Just don't stop thinking. If you do it'll all be over. But as long as you just keep on thinking there's nothing you won't be able to do."

I didn't really believe that. But he sounded sure, even though he'd more or less directly told me that everything was impossible to discern now.

But if I didn't stop thinking…

Saturn Anne was the head of a certain division of Okinomiya's city government. If I recall correctly, he was given such a role despite his age because of how abnormally smart he was. He had been extremely fortunate and should've been able to live without a care in the world. Yet he wished for someone's death and manipulated me because he understood my connection with Kei-chan. He already had all the power he could ever want. So why exercise such extreme torture on people who were complete strangers to him?

I try to tie him to Kei-chan. Did the two have any substantial connection? I doubted it. Perhaps the two had been in the same school in the past and perhaps Saturn Anne was looked down upon and Kei-chan was the object of his insecurities. There isn't enough motive there to want him dead.

Yet he called upon me to kill him. He called upon me, even though he knew I wouldn't go through with it because he knew – he knew that Kei-chan would stand up for me. He knew that I wouldn't harm him. He knew every aspect of our relationship. How isn't important right now – it's the reason why. There's a reason why he knew of our connection and a reason why he chose to exploit it. I was almost certain that he was trying to leave me a message. But I couldn't figure out what sort of message it could be.

…No, that's not right. Don't stop thinking…

There's only so many things he could've been trying to convey. If I can draw a personal connection between one of those things and the man in question I could figure it out.

First, he could've been trying to convince me to become stronger – to give up my worldly ties, which would've been fully conveyed in his own death. But he has no reason to care for me. There's no connection between my family and that man.

He could've been trying to dilute my feelings for Kei-chan because of his own sense of jealousy. Perhaps after becoming so powerful he eventually realized that he was alone and hated me because I wasn't alone. Perhaps he wanted me to suffer for that reason – but he offered me a way out. He told me I could save everyone if I killed Kei-chan. But he knew I wouldn't so perhaps he just wanted to see me struggle. But if jealousy was all that it was, then why me? Why me specifically? Was it because I went to him to ask for peace when his heart would never be a peace? It was certainly possible. But he knew that Kei-chan would always trust me… He knew we'd never abandon each other, so he knew it wouldn't serve any purpose.

What else could there have been? Could he have just hated me because of my connection to him in the first place? Perhaps it wasn't me that mattered – maybe it was always just Kei-chan. But even then there still wasn't enough of a connection between the two for him to want Kei-chan dead.

So right then and there I decided – Saturn Anne's actions were not personal in any sort of way.

He was probably under orders of some kind. But if I try to connect him with his position in Okinomiya's city government, nothing seems to make sense. Maybe he was hired specifically to kill Kei-chan without dirtying Okinomiya's hands or was taking orders from a higher power to mess with the family. Maybe his goal was to distract me so he could destroy Hinamizawa that much more easily. But it didn't work out either way – if he were trying to deal with things the easy way, he wouldn't have been on the frontlines himself. Furthermore, if the former were the case, there wouldn't have _been _frontlines to begin with. Therefore there had to be a greater purpose to all of it –

Don't stop thinking, Mion…! You're almost there…

Kei-chan didn't have any ties to anything serious that I knew about. If someone were out to get him to fulfill some grand purpose, clearly I was in the dark about something. Maybe Kei-chan about it, or maybe he didn't. But the point is that Saturn Anne was acting to fulfill that grand purpose. And whatever purpose it was, it claimed his life when it went unfulfilled. So then what could it have possibly been? It wasn't personal. It was a job he was given. A job he lost his life trying to fulfill.

But Kei-chan…? What could he possibly have been involved with? He _must _have been in the dark about it. Maybe his parents were involved in something and he inherited their burden after they died? But wait, didn't all of this happen _before _the disaster? Kei-chan's parents were alive and well at that time – even now, aren't they on a business trip right now? Come to think of it, they _are _out of town right now.

C'mon, Mion, pull yourself together! Sure, it's not like you see them every day, but you can't be making mistakes like this!

The only way I could know for sure would be to consult the only surviving person in the connection I'd established. Kei-chan would likely have the final say in the matter – he wouldn't lie to me, unless what he was hiding was something terrifying. Of course he'd already shared his disturbing visions with me – he didn't seem to have any desire to hide anything from me. I decided that when tomorrow came and we all had time to recuperate from Satoko's death I would talk to him about it. Right now I wasn't prepared to walk right into another bout, especially having so narrowly escaped the two before.

Shion and I head down the hall – she wanted to stay with me for an extended period of time, and I was in no position to turn her away. I try my best to hide my state of thought – I fumble with the already unnecessarily annoying lock on my door which needs to be unlocked no matter what side of the door you're on, but aside from that I appear as neutral as possible. There was absolutely no sense in concerning her and I wasn't going to make things any harder on her than they already were. I had Battler to reassure me – I was making a good choice. The logical choice.

We end up sitting in silence for most of the time, with Shion randomly asking me about things that I remembered back when Satoshi was still around. I honestly didn't remember anywhere near as much as she did, but rather obviously Shion was the one who spent every waking moment thinking about him for a good three years, not me. Shion seemed to be able to recall every last detail of our time with Satoshi. Including the ones that neither of us really wanted to remember.

I hadn't really given it much thought until now, but it wasn't all that long ago that Shion had beaten Satoko for troubling Satoshi. I'd most certainly like to think that their relationship improved, but it would seem that Shion only ever began to care for Satoko because Satoshi had made her promise to. Shion's reaction earlier seemed to suggest otherwise, but I had become curious of what had been actually going through my sister's head at the time.

The more I thought about the two possibilities the more I became concerned over what Shion was really feeling. I couldn't help but wonder – now with Satoshi back in the picture, there was any number of things that could happen. Shion was already determined to kill Irie without having any proof that he had killed Satoko – only on the basis that he was keeping Satoshi prisoner. We honestly had no idea of why Irie had done what he had done, but she was already prepared to end his life without a moment's notice.

I was probably just paranoid because of how strange Rena has been acting, but what if Shion turned on me too? Was I prepared to handle that sort of a scenario? No, I wasn't. I'd been relying on her so much, but what if Shion were to turn on me for Satoshi's sake? What if she gets herself killed for his sake? She'd act as irrationally has she had to – and so I finally had to accept, sitting there and listening to her go on and on about her past with Satoshi, that I was losing my sister.

Eventually the time came for us to part – it was already well past midnight and the easiest way for Shion to calm down was to return to her room and sleep things off, even though it was doubtful that she'd get any amount of sleep. I wouldn't either – there was always the chance she would sneak out of her room to kill Irie, and I couldn't let her put herself in a situation where the others would brand her Satoko's killer. I try to get her to stay behind, but she turns me down more times than I can count on one hand. And so, as a last resort, I finally speak my mind.

"Don't do anything stupid." I tell her as she opens my door with the key.

"What're you saying? I'll be fine."

"You're going to try to kill Irie." I put my thoughts bluntly.

"And if I am?" She speaks in a very usual sort of voice. She was putting on a face. She was ready to rip a man's face off – there was no way she could be doing anything but putting on a face right now.

"You shouldn't."

"And why shouldn't I?"

"It's way too risky. The way things are right now, you'll just get branded a killer."

"Well, I _will _be a killer."

"You know what I mean."

"It doesn't matter."

"Like hell it doesn't."

"You don't need to concern yourself with –"

"I'm sick of hearing that. You aren't doing a damn thing if I'm not right there with you."

"You'd just be wasting your life. You know as well as I do we don't actually have anything to nail him with. Just let me handle things."

I grab her wrist. "I'm not."

"You're not thinking straight. You're just too tired because of everything that's happened."

"If I wasn't thinking straight I'd let you jump off a cliff right about now. You're the one who isn't thinking straight."

"Then do you propose something better than this?" She raises her voice, still facing fully away from me.

"Let's not forget that Satoshi is still alive. This is absolutely _not _the way we should go about taking revenge."

"You didn't seem to have any qualms earlier."

"Earlier you were in tears. Right now you're ready to tear my arm off and I can feel it. There's a good enough reason for you right there."

"He took him away from us." She speaks in a much lower voice.

"We don't even know that for sure."

"Even though he's hidden him under his clinic? What, you think someone else stuffed him down here and Irie never noticed a comatose boy in his basement?"

"I didn't say that. We don't know _why. _We have to know _why _first before we can do anything to him."

"I don't see why-"

"What if he's keeping him _alive_?"

To that Shion gives no response. It seems I've finally gotten her to see things my way. She shakes off my wrist and leaves my room without another thought, shutting the door behind her. I hear her slam the door to her own room shut a few moments later. I was going to take that for what I thought it meant and leave her to herself – she needed to be alone now more than anything else.

But a few moments later I realize that she still had my key on her.

I search the room in case I just didn't notice her drop it or something – there was no way, I was so sure that she'd taken that…!

I then see it – in the far corner of the room my key had apparently landed. I'm not entirely sure when it ended up there, but at least I'd found it. I sigh with relief and pick it up…

But looking closer, I realize that this was Shion's key. I was, therefore, locked in my room until morning at the earliest. Shion _had _taken my key. I almost panic, but it suddenly registers that Shion was locked in her room until morning at the earliest as well. I sigh with relief once again. At least she couldn't go anywhere.

Battler suddenly appears at my side. "Shit, I was wondering if she was ever going to leave. Staying quiet for this long – I'd rather be locked up in that room again…" I glare at him in response – he quiets down fairly quickly.

"Something's going to happen." I sigh.

"I'm afraid something already has." Battler speaks in response. I give him a confused look. But suddenly I try to put things together – "Don't worry." He speaks reassuringly, as if reading my mind. "Your sister is fine." I almost sigh with relief.

"But if something already happened…"

"There's little time left. You have less than three hours to ascertain the truth. Can you still do it?"

Three hours – now less than that. I had so little time left – it was far too daunting. But more importantly, I had three hours left.

In three hours we would all be dead. I was staring my own death in the face now – Shion's too, as well as Kei-chan's and Rika-chan's.

Did I have enough time? Had I waited too long?

"…I understand you're pressed for time, and… I know that it won't benefit you in any way, but…" Battler seemed to have a hard time getting his point across – something that hadn't happened before.

"But what?"

"…If it comes down to it, I can offer you one final easy way out."

"What…? But won't that be-"

"The time will come where your death will be inevitable… At that time, if you truly believe that the truth is lost, simply say the word and I'll take you to a place where you don't have to experience the pain of death."

"What do you mean?"

"There's a place – it's called the Golden Land. It's the sort of place where all suffering finds its end. If you go there, you'll never have to die normally. You don't have to experience your death… But the only one who can decide if the end is inevitable or not is you, rather obviously."

"A way out, at the very end, huh… But when will the very end be?"

"Like I said… You are the only one who can decide that."

I didn't respond. Battler had more or less confirmed that I was going to end up trapped in a fatal scenario… But shouldn't I wait things out until the final moment? He hasn't said that there was no way I could uncover the truth. But…

Just a short while ago I chose my life over the truth. Even if I tried to tell myself I wouldn't back down, I knew that I would… So it was a matter of when. When could I say with certainty that the end was nigh? That it was impossible for me to find the truth and live?

"More importantly…" I try to change the subject. "You said something already happened. I can't exactly get out of this room right now, so… What am I going to do?"

"At least for the moment, you and your sister cannot be touched. Neither of you can die right now. At least take solace in that simple fact."

"But even then…"

"I believe I already told you that you can't save everyone. That won't change – no matter how much you want it to."

"I'm already well aware of that. Believe me."

It was now the time that I had to make my decision. What was the course of action I needed to take? At this point it was fairly obvious. I needed to wait – I had to wait for the moment where I'd be able to act. And from there… My top priority would doubtlessly be Kei-chan. There was no way I'd let him go…

But I had a feeling that it was far too late for me to protect him. Something had indeed happened, and so my gut told me that he was involved.

I decide to come to terms with it now.

I couldn't afford to do so later.

And so I decide that no matter what has happened I can't put what time I have left to waste. I have to accept that I can't save everyone – Kei-chan is included in that. But now, all I can do is try to reach the end. I could keep going without him – at least for just a little longer. I had to leave this room believing that his death was certain. I had to make my final stand on my own strength – not Kei-chan's. That was the only way this would be possible.

I suddenly hear several loud noises. And in a matter of moments a loud crash shakes the walls of my room. This was it – this was the pivotal moment…!

I try to somehow break my door down. But the more I struggle the more I realize how hopeless this is.

But suddenly my room key is slid under my door. The moment I notice it I call out to Shion who was doubtlessly on the other side of my door just a moment ago, but I receive no response. I quickly unlock my door and bolt down the hallway –

As I expected, Shion's door lies in ruins. She seems to have found a way to break it down… But more importantly, those sounds from before the crash.

I quickly run down the hallway to Irie's room. I figure that I have to start somewhere – if he's absent from his room at this time of night, it only proves that he's the killer –

So, given that, the moment I opened his door, the sight of his body sprawled out on the floor with its chest ripped open didn't exactly calm my nerves.

Was I wrong after all?

Was Irie really _not _the killer?

I waste no time… I have only a few moments left… There's not much time before my chance slips away –

And so I find myself standing before Kei-chan's opened door.

I step inside –and I'm somewhat thankful.

Thankful that the killer hid him away in the darkest corner of the room so I wouldn't have to see the face he died with. I stand there in his doorway, motionless. I try to act as if refusing to look at him was the same thing as saying he wasn't dead…

I can't look at him. I won't… Because…

Because now I realize that everything amounted to nothing.

How many times did I say I wouldn't let anything happen to him?

How hollow were those words? How hollow was I for saying them in the first place?

I threw away my home, my family, and everything else I had for Kei-chan. I selfishly refused to let him die. And now he's dead either way.

If this was so inevitable, I should've just let him go to begin with.

There's nothing gained from this.

There was nothing gained from having him suffer a little longer.

I leave the room and shut the door behind me, my sadness silent yet apparent.

Am I even crying? I don't know. But at this point I don't care.

What happens to me isn't important anymore.

It occurs to me that there's one more room I have to check. I'm not sure where Shion is at the moment, but running after her without confirming that everyone else is dead isn't a smart idea.

I enter Rika's room… If only this door was still locked – maybe then I'd have some peace of mind going in. But I knew. I knew before I even walked into that room that terror would be waiting for me on the other side. But what I find was something far worse than I ever could have ever imagined.

Indeed, terror was waiting for me.

Rena's corpse was quite literally scattered across the floor. I could make out hands and legs, but her head was nowhere to be found. So how did I know it was Rena's corpse? In all honesty, I didn't know for certain. But the body parts were too large for Rika's…

I almost throw up, but I manage to stomach it and press on into the room. At this point there's nothing that can disturb me.

I finally I look up.

And she's standing there – Rika, covered in blood, holding a large machete, her eyes cold and empty. She looks towards me, her eyes giving off a bored look as she finally realizes that I'm there.

"Mion. Wasn't expecting you."

"R-Rika…What's…What's going on here?! Are you really…" I tried to understand what I was seeing here – but wasn't it impossible? How could Rika have been the killer? There was no way she could've gotten anywhere near Satoko…!

"I don't think I ever understood… Even the first time around."

"…Understood…what?" I murmur, still more unsure about what I'm seeing than I've ever been of anything in my life. Rika's the killer…? But that can't be right… She's a ten year old girl… She doesn't even have the eyes of a murderer…

"I've never really got the idea of death before… Pain? Suffering? Being on the opposite side for once – those things seem so trivial. The killer gets the worst of it." She doesn't seem to reflect any of what she'd just said – but right now I'm not even sure if I'm hallucinating this or not.

"Rika…But…Why…" I have trouble getting my thoughts together.

"I…I'm really not in the mood to tell you… I'm not sure why, though. I thought I had a better lid on myself than this…" She expresses her concern with the least amount of emotion possible.

Battler suddenly appears at my side. "You need to get out of here."

"What? But –"

"Nothing is as it seems here. _Nothing_."

Rika looks towards me once again. "Oh, who's that you've got there?"

I'm too shocked for words – she can _see _Battler?

"Ah, I see… I knew something was up here." Battler evidently has a much better idea about things than I do. "So you've used the Corridor as well."

"Hm… Then maybe you might tell me." Rika seems much more attentive. "How much longer until this is over?"

"Sadly, I'm bound to this place now. It's a bit of a long story, but where you're from I'm probably long dead. I'm not as detached from everything around me as you are."

"Ah, so you're stuck in this fragment. How disappointing."

Battler almost sneers at her. "Hm… Your first taste of blood and you're already just like her. But in any event, this fragment is bound to one destiny… Although beside me is the key to change all of that."

"Mion might be a bit special in her own right, but there's only one way to resolve things here."

"You can't kill the beast. Not the way you are."

"And why do you think so?"

"Because you simply can't…" Battler then moves in front of me. "I'm sorry, but your hand's already fucked up things royally enough. I'm not going to let you pass."

"And who are you to stop me? Why are you even here to begin with?"

"Heh… Like I'm gonna tell someone like you what I'm up to… Mion." He suddenly calls out to me. I remember that I'm actually in the room, listening to this conversation. "Get out of here. Go find your sister. We're dangerously close to the end. Your chances for success are very close to zero. Didn't stop me – shouldn't stop you."

"…But I'm not –"

"I know you've got pretty much _no _reason to listen to me right now, but… trust me, alright?"

I don't know what's happening here. But in the end perhaps I'm better off not knowing. Maybe it was all just a figment of my imagination. Maybe I'm already dead – who knows? I certainly don't.

… The hell with it. There's no reason for me to stay here. I take off without another word, leaving Battler to deal with the seemingly imposturous Rika. I head down the hallway, searching for Shion – I'd be damned if I let my sister suffer the same fate as everyone else.

In the end I end up heading back down towards the boiler room. I had a strange feeling that down there was where I'd find some answers to all of this – at this point, if Shion wasn't in hiding, she'd be protecting Satoshi.

I hurry down the hall and cross through the boiler room. Both of the doors were still damaged from what Shion had done earlier – I could only hope that my path forward wasn't going to be obscured again.

I make my way down the dark hallway past the boiler room – I sigh with relief. The massive metallic doors are no longer there – but on the floor in front of me is a trail of thick blood.

I quicken my pace. I can't be too late, can I?

I reach the end – the door to Satoshi's chamber is barricaded by large pieces of debris. In a panic I start moving the huge pieces of debris out of the way. I don't even know what any of these things are. Was there an earthquake or something? Did someone blow something up? How much did I miss during my time in Rika's room? Was I even seeing things straight at all anymore?

I put my psychological condition out of my mind. I couldn't panic – not now. I had to resist the urge to listen to reason. I had to save Shion that was all the reason I had to have right now.

I eventually manage to remove enough that the door will open. I quickly run inside.

I try to shout her name – but my voice is lost.

The transparent glass is painted red. Huge blotches of blood obscure everything that I had been able to see before – but towards the center, the blood is smeared – smeared by a hand. It's somewhat blurry, but I can see it… a human hand, pressed against the glass as if trying to push it away. I place my hand against the glass – it lines up perfectly with the other hand.

I can say almost without a doubt that this is Shion.

…I can say that this is the end.

There's no truth worth losing all of this in order to find it.

But I'm Mion Sonozaki.

I'm supposed to fight to the end.

The door behind me is ripped off its hinges. I don't even turn around at first – Am I simply that uncaring? That I won't look my killer in the face? No, I'm not that uncaring, but I feel as if my death is so absolute that it doesn't matter to me who kills me at this point.

But I do eventually turn around.

And there it stood – the demon, in all of its glory. The lighting was poor, but I could clearly see the demon's glowing red eyes, the skull it had for a face and the antlers that stuck out of its head. The rest of its body was too covered in the darkness to comprehend. Perhaps this is what Battler meant when he had said the demon would only be real if enough fog set in…

"Well? What're you waiting for?" I speak coldly. "You've already killed everyone else. What's taking you so long?" I'm not even afraid anymore. It's like I've come to terms with this.

The demon snarls and raises its gargantuan arm – and with a single swing it claims my left arm in its entirety. I cough blood and stagger backward. The only reason why it didn't hurt all that much was because it happened so fast.

"You missed…" I grunt. I was still alive, at least for the moment. At this point I could call to him and have no regrets… But no, I'm going to wait until the very end.

The demon swings again. This time it tears the skin on my face. I shout and back away, the pain from my missing arm suddenly spiking through my entire body. It swings again, this time breaking my left leg and causing me to fall over.

Ah, there we go… There's the pain I was expecting.

But this demon – truly, such a cruel creature… I was suffering. It was ensuring that I'd suffer. How mindless could such a creature be? There was no way that this demon was just a power hungry animal that ran on instinct.

I began to slowly realize. As I was dying, I began to understand.

With each strike, there was an emotion. An emotion that only I could understand what with how detached from this life I now was. There was sadness and hatred. There was pure, dignified rage mixed in as well. Every strike hit like a freight train. There was inhuman strength behind every one of them – inhuman strength that must have taken years and years to build up.

I was consumed by pain – my entire body begged for the pain to stop. But I couldn't. Not yet. I'm so close to the truth – I can feel it…

…But it hurts. So much…

…But I don't think I'm the only one hurting.

The beast suddenly stops attacking me. It simply stands there and snarls. My face twisted beyond belief, my arm missing, my leg broken, my hands crushed and countless gashes hemorrhaging blood everywhere, I did nothing but look at it with my weakened eyes. My vision blurs, but even then I continue to stare it down. I make no movement, but neither does it.

I don't have the energy to move. I probably don't have the energy to call out to Battler anymore.

I'm at the very end. In a matter of moments my life will be taken from me.

I see him standing in the distance, looking upon me with a solemn expression. He stands there, waiting for the moment that I would call upon him.

"…B-Battler…" I call out to him, my voice .

There was only one thing I could do… This would be the only way I could escape this pain…

I don't want to hurt anymore. Dying will take too long.

But even then, here I am.

He looks at me expectantly.

"…I'm…almost there." I speak as I cough more blood.

He nods his head, watching my final moments pass by.

The demon strikes me again, this time ripping my side open. I'm not sure how much blood I've lost but it's doubtlessly a fatal amount. My body continues to flare as every instinctive signal that goes off in my brain demands that I end this.

But here I am.

Here is the demon.

Here is the one truly responsible for everything.

Here I am. The only one that can stand against it.

The demon suddenly grabs my throat. It would seem that it was going to choke me to death.

This was it. This was the end.

This was the point where there is no turning back.

But here I am.

And the demon screams. But I continue to look into its blood red eyes, even as my entire body starts to shut down.

And in the last moment I finally shed a tear.

Because I'd waited to the very end.

And at that last moment I learned the truth.

And the truth…

The truth was perhaps worth dying for.

But when the cicadas cry there are no survivors.

And so the truth will never set me free…

* * *

_From Beyond the Looking Glass  
__The Endless Sorcerer_

This story is not a fantasy.

But I see you've finally taken my words to heart – as you forget the why, the who and how become clearer. As you die, you will begin to understand. And in the end, once you've died time after time and the curtain finally falls on this farce, then, and only then, can you truly reach the truth. But your fate is certain no matter what – and they who deliver your fate unto you are certain as well.

But how is such a thing possible? Is Rika Furude truly a killer? Or perhaps it is only her fictional alter ego that is capable of the killing?

But this story is not a fantasy.

And you should do well to remember that.

Your fate is certain. Your reaper is certain. Therefore, the rules of our game are just as certain:

**A killer is defined as one who kills intentionally, with the motive to kill not including defensive exercise. A killer may kill accidently, but the majority of their murders must be intentional.  
****The detective is not the culprit.  
****At the start of all tales, the school girl's death goes unresolved.  
****At the end of all tales that take place in 1983, Miyo Takano erases Hinamizawa and its inhabitants.  
****At the end of all tales, every resident of Hinamizawa is dead.  
****Until conflict with Okinomiya begins, no visitors from Okinomiya are present in the village on any day or evening of any attack.  
****Okinomiya citizens are not conspirators. The mob is not a collection of culprits. The culprit may, however, be amongst the mob.  
****Starting on the eve of the Watanagashi Festival, Miyo Takano will disappear and will be inactive for two days.  
****The one true culprit is capable of all killings.  
****Only the detective and their assistant can confirm a dead body.  
****The Hinamizawa Syndrome, when administered, is administered by injection.  
****Only Irie, Miyo, and Mion are capable of administering the injection.  
****The man with the black hat is not the culprit.  
****I am not the culprit.**

But here and now, there is a new truth that you have unveiled through your trial and tribulations. With the word I have created, the word that is truly absolute, I shall acknowledge your death and honor it with the pride of a sorcerer.

**No death is accidental.  
****Miyo Takano is not the culprit.  
****Satoshi Houjou is not considered a refugee or a survivor.  
****Satoshi Houjou is only considered a body.**

And as to not get your hopes up, **at the end of all tales, Satoshi Houjou is dead.** No, he sadly does not take a level in badass, learn how to wield a katana, and return to Hinamizawa to fight an army. Not this time around, at any rate.

This is the truth. This is the truth that you have uncovered. May you reveal it all with your own power – with the power of man, a power that must prevail over the suspicious shadow cast upon your tale.

And with that, our tale continues…

First, I shall reveal to you the nature of the _**Okinomiya Murders.  
**_**The school girl's death remains constant. The red truth is unhindered.  
****The details of the massacres are unknown. A culprit cannot be determined or assumed.  
****There is no detective's perspective. There is no solution. The truth cannot be seen.  
**Next, I shall reveal to you the nature of _**The Boiler Room Murder.  
**_**The culprit has no limitation. All participants in this tale are guilty until proven innocent.  
**The boiler room and the area around it are constructed as such:  
There are two entrances to the boiler room and **no more**: the main entrance and the back door.  
A ventilation shaft runs through the ceiling, but cannot be considered an entrance.  
Mion stood guard at the main entrance.  
Mion did not let anyone through the passageway between the time Satoko went into the boiler room and the time the door was opened. **Therefore, from the moment that Satoko entered the boiler room, the culprit could not enter the boiler room from the main entrance while Mion was outside the boiler room.  
****There was no one in the boiler room when Satoko entered.  
**The back door can only be opened by Irie's key. **The key and the door, at the time of the murder, were in two different places and could not interact.  
****There are no additional keys to the backdoor.  
**The lock could be picked, and the detective did not examine the door. **I, however, will confirm that the back door was locked and had not been tampered with when Mion and the others entered the room.  
****At the time Satoko entered the boiler room, she was the only one in the room. No one else entered before she did.  
****When the boiler room was sealed off, the only person outside either entrance was Mion, who was at the front entrance.**

Next, I shall reveal to you the nature of the **Refugee Roulette Murders**…

…

I hesitate to reveal this truth, but…

…**At the very moment that Satoko was declared dead, all refugees outside the boiler room were already dead.**

The culprit is, therefore, amongst all those left alive. And the demon, of course.

Which then leads us to this… **At the time Shion planned to kill Irie Kyosuke, he was already dead. **How ironic… Such are the whims of this tale.

But then again… Can we assume Shion was unaware of that?

**We can't…** And I won't give you any definitive answer past that.

As for the murders themselves:  
The detective's perspective is perhaps… flawed, so I shall say it myself. **Everybody is considered a body… Uh, I mean every **_**body **_**is considered a body. **Try to ignore that first bit, alright…?  
**Shion and Mion were locked in their rooms until Shion broke her door down. Mion had the key to Shion's room, while Shion had the key to Mion's room. The door to Shion's room was not tampered with at all until the breaking down occurred.  
****Keiichi did not die until after the incident in the boiler room.  
****Keiichi was not killed until after the first set of murders under this classification.  
****There are no hidden entrances into any rooms. The culprit did not hide in a bathroom prior to the killings.  
****Mion entered Keiichi's room after all the victims were dead.  
****If Mion had encountered the culprit on her way to Keiichi's room, she would have recognized them as the culprit.  
****Miyo Takano's death is certain…** Hm? Why would I have to say such a thing? Well… Should I have to tell you at this point? You should know… If you don't I'm afraid you have much to learn.

…Also, for those of you delusional enough to produce such a theory –  
**No, Keiichi is not playing dead.  
**

And finally, I shall reveal to you the nature of the _**Demon's Final Stand.  
**_…**At the end of this set of murders, all the refugees are dead.  
**The perspective is once again…murky, so once again I shall confirm that "**Rika" does indeed kill Rena.  
**However, as this is an act of self defense and also a murder that involves elements outside the realm of possibility, **this killing does not affect Rika's potentiality as a culprit in any way.  
**The body witnessed by Mion in Rika's room is not twisted by delusions. **The body is indeed as it appears.  
****The one true culprit is still perfectly capable of killing Rena.  
****The culprit is witnessed by all survivors at the end.  
****At the end of the tale, the culprit is in Satoshi's chamber.  
****All surviving refugees witnessed the culprit at the eleventh hour…**

…And here we are. Here we are at the critical moment.

Who killed Rika Furude?  
Who killed Mion Sonozaki?  
Who killed Shion? Who killed Satoshi?

Is there any way to confirm…

With such an elaborate, impossible death for each of them?

And…

…

Perhaps now is the time…

Perhaps you've already seen it. Perhaps this won't come as a surprise…

**At the end of the tale, all refugees are dead.**

The culprit must be a refugee… right?

No…perhaps that is not the case…

**Saturn Anne is dead…**

**Miyo Takano is already dead…**

So **the culprit's death is not guaranteed by the Angel of Death…**

But **at the end of the tale, all citizens of Hinamizawa are dead.**

Then who is the culprit…?

There is some truth that I have perhaps kept hidden…

But you want to know, don't you?

You want me to reveal it here and now, don't you?

I'm only protecting you…

Protecting you from a truth you can't tolerate…

But if I must… I shall.

**At the time Mion entered Keiichi's room, only Mion and the body, no other human elements, were present…**

…

…

…

Heh…

I wonder, if I were to reveal this truth…

Then perhaps…

Perhaps, if you are truly who you are supposed to be…

…

…

**But… The culprit…**

….ihihihi…

… **was in the room…!**

**There are no hiding places…!**

**There are no hidden passages…!**

**Only…**

**ONLY A "DEMON" CAN KILL SATOKO HOUJOU…!**

**ONLY A "DEMON" CAN KILL KEIICHI MAEBARA…!**

**ONLY A "DEMON" CAN KILL RIKA FURUDE…!**

**ONLY A "DEMON" CAN KILL MION SONOZAKI…!**

**ONLY A "DEMON" CAN BE THE ONE TRUE CULPRIT…!**

But this story is not a fantasy…

Come after me… Come after me, with everything you have. Spare me no quarter. Hate me. Hate me enough that you can kill me without hesitation. Only then will it be possible…

Kill the beast, expose the truth –

Or face the wrath of my Blood Red Truth…!

Ihihi….

Ihihiahahahahahahahahahahhah ahahahahahahahaha-

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

So there you have it - the end of the Greatest Fear Chapter. At this point I'd like to apologize for how lacking this chapter was - there was way too much focus on Mion and not enough on everything else. Also, I'm well aware that I've butchered Mion's personality to the point where it's fairly unrecognizable... It's intentional, so don't worry.

And just for the record, Battler is the official king of the trolls in this story. What exactly do I mean by that? ...Pfft, I'm not telling.

So anyhow, with the conclusion to this chapter, we're going to get back into the heat of the meta physical crap. And after that we have another Riku Furude Chapter which will hopefully make up for this one. Then we get to the third arc. And that's were stuff starts getting crazy. Because things aren't crazy enough right now. I've actually been looking forward to this third arc mainly because the perspective character is someone I've done extremely little with in both this story and the previous story... So if you narrow the Higurashi cast down, you might have some idea about what's going to go on.

Oh, and surprise, the end of this arc will actually be up in a few days as opposed to a few weeks. So look forward to that.


	10. D Chapter: The Face of Death

_**Author's Note**_

A little heads-up before we get into this chapter:

I said at the start that this _wouldn't _be a direct sequel to _End Dreamer_. My pants were practically ablaze. We're going deep into _End Dreamer _territory here and it's going to keep getting more and more apparent as time goes on. I'm not going to integrate all of the OCs into that story into this one, though. Most of them won't even be mentioned here. Emphasis on 'most'. The plot will still be completely understandable, but as I believe I said at the start, those of you that read the previous fic might get a bit more out of... certain developments. Just a heads-up.

Anyhow, let's get on to the actual story here, shall we?

* * *

_**D Chapter – The Face of Death **_

_Serika, v2.13_

I step around Mion's disfigured corpse as I head towards the gaping void in the glass behind her. The man named Battler stands behind me, making no motion to stop me.

"So you're going to just let me go?" I question him a moment before I step through.

"There's no sense in trying to stop you. But you'll see things my way before too long. You've got a ton of shit ahead of you – pray you walk out of it alive."

I don't give him any sort of response. I leave him behind in that fragment, contemplating for a moment why he doesn't take this opportunity to escape from the fragment as the portal closes behind me.

I follow Nebiros into the void, which I knew would take me straight into the Sea of Fragments. It was trying to escape once again, even though it had more or less come out on its own. Avoiding the fragments in my way, I continue to follow Nebiros down the path that had opened up in space – it was more like falling down a chasm than moving down a pathway, but the laws of more or less everything don't apply all that well in a place like this.

Eventually the path ends and I'm dumped out onto a very familiar faceless surface surrounded by the familiar void of purple. And there it was – standing before me only a few feet away, its face downcast in the most depressing scowl I've seen in my life, snarling at me with all the hatred it could muster. There's little doubt about it – this is the demon. This is Nebiros, an entity that no longer has any place in this world. A demon that kills purely to satiate its own sorrow and dilute the pain that has plagued it for thousands upon thousands of years.

This was the demon that tainted Hinamizawa. This was the demon that prevented me from moving on to a future. This was the demon that kept me from my friends, purely for the sake of surviving. For the sake of living with the endless sorrow that plagued an endless dream that it could never wake up from. This was the demon that suffered and died so I could suffer and die.

And I wanted nothing more than to turn away at that moment and never look back. I didn't want to even look upon such a creature. The sheer amplitude of its emotions inflicted a great sense of torment upon me as well.

It was guilt. This demon was guilty of so many horrible things. And I felt guilty for wanting to kill it.

But I had to. Nero would be along at any moment. So if I must act, it best be now, or it would be too late. There would be no hope for the fragments or any of my friends otherwise.

And so our battle began. And looking back on it - I couldn't help but question my motivations from the very start.

I gripped the Velvet Death, my hands still shivering from the sheer presence of Nebiros. I had to remember what Satoshi had said – this was a demon, but it can still feel. It still had a personality buried under the corruption and it was perfectly capable of communication. There had to be more than one way to win this fight – and the simple fact that Satoshi had wanted us to believe in its repressed side was enough to ensure that there was.

Nebiros clenched its massive fist and began to shiver –

And in another moment it swung at me with the force of a freight train. I was hit head on, the Velvet Death doing essentially nothing to shield me from the blow. I staggered backward before Nebiros clawed at me, ripping my skin open as if its claws had torn through paper. I cried in agony as yet another blow from the massive fist landed.

I tried to swing the scythe, my body moving almost too naturally with the weapon I'd never used before. I made several swift, unrelenting swings, all of which would've killed a lesser being in a matter of moments. But not a single elegant curve of the sickle so much as grazed Nebiros, whose inhuman reflexes avoided every single one of them with practically no effort whatsoever. For a massive beast, it was far too nimble. But then again, it _was _a demon.

And at that moment, it went for the kill. Without any warning it twisted its gargantuan arm around me, digging into the back of my head with its claws. It began to tighten – it was going to choke me to death, right here and right now. And I'd managed nothing – the scythe was useless against such an opponent, likely because this scythe was never created with such a beast in mind. Eventually, not even the supernatural allure of the Velvet Death mattered to me, and the scythe fell to the floor –

And I remembered. Wasn't the Velvet Death supposed to be the weapon that made killing the demon possible in the first place? Wasn't simply discovering the demon in the fragment enough? Wasn't forcing it to flee supposed to have been enough to make it killable?

But why was the Velvet Death so useless?

Something was wrong.

Something was horribly wrong. And staring into the eyes of Nebiros I knew – I knew it was impossible. But that didn't stop me from struggling to stay alive.

And suddenly there was a flash of blue light. The Velvet Death had touched the floor, but then –

_You've given up.  
__Do you truly lack the motivation to fight on?  
__No, that isn't true.  
__You wish to fight on.  
__But you don't want to fight the beast.  
You won't kill the beast.  
__Even if the beast is going to kill you.  
__Your fate is sealed now.  
__Your fate is now absolute.  
__You cannot escape fate.  
__Not the way you are.  
__So…  
_…_Can you do it?  
__Can you stand and fight?  
__Can you live even though you've died?  
__You've done a good enough job so far…_

My eyes struggled to remain open, but despite my protests I felt all feeling fade away. It seemed that no exoskeleton or robotic enhancements had any real value against Nebiros – I began to believe that without Bernkastel herself it really was impossible to overcome it.

But I had heard it – I had heard the voice.

And then I was somewhere else entirely. I was still in the dark purple void that made up the Sea of Fragments, but things were different in this odd dimension. In the background I could hear cicadas – and standing before me was what seemed to be a large gravestone, welded into a mound of dirt beneath it, covered in moss and riddled with cracks that suggested that it had been there for a very long time. And at the grave's side was an overturned wheelchair, dusty and void of color.

But I could still hear the voice.

"Who are you?" I asked, expecting not to receive any answer whatsoever.

_Nothing more than a Phantom. A passing fancy that became the Velvet Death. Something that perished long ago. Yet here I am… How peculiar. _

"You're… In the scythe?"

_It's more appropriate to say that I AM the scythe. Did that lousy preacher tell you anything about me, or did he just give you a deadly weapon without the instruction manual?_

I assumed he was talking about Astaroth – although I wouldn't have called him a lousy preacher. But the voice took my silence as a response that favored his latter inquiry.

_I figured as much… It's unfortunate that things had to end this way. But as it is the Velvet Death, the false weapon, can do you no good. _

"Then is there anything I _can _do?"

_There's only one thing I can tell you at this point. Your chances of success aren't simply close to zero – they are zero. Nebiros has found a way to exist in the realm of impossibility. And because of that you simply can't defeat it. _

"What are you saying…?"

_I'm afraid that the way things are you simply can't survive. Rika Furude's life has ended… And because of that, you are bound. Bound to serve as a celestial entity in a human body. And without the body you wouldn't even be here right now._

"But isn't Nebiros the same way?"

_Nebiros may have to make a nest in a human body, but this nest is one of several thousand. Nebiros may have a singular point of origin as you do and can be killed, but even then Nebiros is simply too powerful to be defeated. Nebiros draws upon the raw energy of every fragment it has infected. Unless you were to destroy every fragment in the entire sea, Nebiros will always have an endless source of power. You, on the other hand, do not._

"But Bernkastel did?"

…_I would answer your question, but I'm afraid that only two people have the answer – Astaroth, and one other... Unfortunately, this other person is almost as much of a ghost as Bernkastel herself is. _

"A lot of good that does me… So what will happen? If this whole scenario is so impossible…"

_Astaroth's backup assailant will attempt to defeat Nebiros, but she'll die all the same. Nebiros can't be killed, not by any means._

"Then is there any way to stop it?"

_You still won't give up? Even after I've told you that you have no chance to succeed?_

"I tend not to believe people when they tell me that things are impossible."

_What, did Maebara tell you to think like that?_

"…"

_There's something you need to know… Now isn't the time, but there might not be a better chance if things keep going the way they're going. _

_Everything you know is wrong. _

"…Excuse me?"

_The way the world works, the way the Sea of Fragments is built – even the true nature of that beast you call Nebiros. While the death of the beast will indeed result in a defragmentation of the Sea… Everything you've ever been told is simply wrong. Hinamizawa, all of its inhabitants – from the very beginning, long before your cycle of pain even began, the world was built on one massive lie. And that man, Astaroth, is at the center of it. _

I wasn't sure what he meant. If the world was based around a lie, and everything I'd heard about anything was simply incorrect, then what was the point to all of this? I didn't believe him – and so I questioned him.

"And where do _you _fit in all of it? Where do _I _fit in all of it? You're saying that everything is wrong? Then explain what we're here for."

_In life I had tried my hardest to atone for my sins. I lived my life, attempting to bring an end to the cycle of pain and suffering I was responsible for. But only in death did I truly understand. _

_Hinamizawa is dead. You are dead. Your friends and everyone connected to them are dead. But even then this farce is still allowed to go on. The dead will always be desecrated, no matter who tries to protect them. _

_And here I am – trapped in this weapon for what feels like an eternity – all so I could observe this farce for myself, and eternally dread the dark future that awaits everyone connected to it. _

It seemed that Astaroth had some underlying plan after all – but why hide the truth from me? And from Nero as well?

"Then what's the truth? Why did Astaroth turn me into this so I could fight an impossible battle? Why did he lie to me, even if it was impossible for me to turn him down anyway?"

…

"Don't you know…?" I was beginning to feel irritated. I was being led by the hand while essentially blindfolded the entire time. And the only person who would tell me the truth was blindfolded as well.

_That man is nothing more than a product of a lie. As are the rest of us. His motives are likely to continue to shield that lie from the rest of the world. I can say with certainty that he –_

"He knew it was impossible to kill Nebiros."

_Correct… But why he planned for you to fight Nebiros and perish the way you were about to is something I cannot say._

"But who is he to begin with? Can't you at least tell me that?"

_Astaroth is an anomaly. He was once an entity without a face or even a name to call his own, but at one point he came to inhabit the darkest corner of Keiichi Maebara's mind. He lives on as his darker half – a darker half that, as long as Maebara still exists, will be immortal. _

"So then… If I were to try and stop him…"

_There's simply no point. While Astaroth could not kill the beast, as Bernkastel could, Bernkastel could not kill Astaroth. And there is simply no way for you to do so… Unless you were willing to let Maebara go._

"That's just not possible… But there is another way, isn't there?"

_Why do you seem so certain? _

"I'm not about to give up… If I can find answers, and if Astaroth's the only one I can get them from, I'll go after him."

_But you forget so easily – Nebiros has ended your life… Don't you understand?_

I was suddenly hit with a rather sudden realization – That's right, Nebiros _did_ finish me off, didn't it? I _was _dead, wasn't I?

But that couldn't be right. How was I here then, talking with some strange voice?

If I could stand around, complaining about how little sense things made, I was alive enough to take a beating.

"I don't believe you." I spoke rather curtly.

There was silence for a short time. And the voice laughed.

The voice laughed. Its dejected tone of voice became lighthearted and humorous.

_That's right – you're different, aren't you? You're the original – you weren't born from someone's imagination and falsehoods like the rest of us were. You're not as hindered by ideas like a Sea of Fragments or a vicious demon… _

"What are you saying?"

_Perhaps there is a chance. But you have to defeat Nebiros first. Can you do that?_

"Of course not."

The voice chuckled slightly.

_Then what will you do? What will you do when you wake up? _

"I'll scare it away."

_I think you're forgetting the gravity of the situation. _

"Nonsense. I'll make Nebiros run away. Then I'll fight Astaroth until he gives me the answers I want."

_You're making it sound far too simple. Forcing Nebiros to cower in fear is the same as screaming at a lion and expecting it to turn tail and run. _ _Fighting Astaroth is the same as fighting your own shadow. _

"It doesn't make either impossible."

_Very well… Continue to fight your fate for as long as you feel the need… I'm not going to have a choice in the matter, but if you believe you've found your resolution…_

And in that moment I was standing before Nebiros once more. The Velvet Death was trapped underneath it as it loomed over me, apparently having let me go after I lost consciousness.

"I don't know what you went through. And for that I'm sorry." I whispered. "But I'm going to kindly ask that you step back before I take your head off."

Nebiros didn't budge.

"Oh well… I warned you. Let's put it that way."

And suddenly I had no fear. No fear of defeat, simply because it was impossible to win. No fear of death, because I was apparently already dead.

And because of that I could feel it. The warm hand pressed against my shoulder. I closed my eyes, as if basking in the rays of the sun.

And then I heard his voice again.

_Very well… If the master demands that the endless end, it is the servant's task to make it happen…!_

_You are the only one. The only one who can do this. Failure is not an option. _

The Velvet Death dissolved into the floor before suddenly shooting straight towards me. I tried to grab it – but it began to shift from the shape of a scythe into something entirely different.

In a matter of moments, the Velvet Death had become a massive cannon, etched with the same sapphires and built of extremely thick metal, strapped to my arm and ready to fire.

_Hm… Does this remind you of anything? _

"Why're you asking me?"

_Don't simply stand there… I can fire bullets of pure truth – you simply have to take aim and shoot. I'll take care of the rest._

"Can't you just fire normal bullets?"

_That wouldn't be extravagant enough. _I could hear an ounce of pride in his voice.

I took aim towards Nebiros – and a massive red bullet, coated in an aura that held a strange blue haze, launched itself from inside the cannon. Nebiros dodged with some effort –

But the second shot hit home. Nebiros staggered backward, and grit its massive teeth –

I'd done it. I'd landed a hit…?!

In the adrenaline rush of the moment I dashed forward continuously firing more and more of these supernaturally powered bullets. Nebiros had no room for recovery, but eventually it had the idea to stand its ground and attempt to grab at me. I was closing in, but despite having noticed this ahead of time I didn't stop.

I continued to fire. Over and over, watching the face of death crumple like a piece of recycled paper. But eventually it swung – but I ducked, jabbing the beast with the cannon, causing it to kneel over and crumple to the faceless floor.

I stood before it, pointing the cannon at its head. No matter how immortal you were, a shot directly to the head couldn't just be shrugged off like a prick to the finger. And I stood there, over my cowering opponent.

"…You have your opening. Why won't you move?" I wasn't expecting any sort of response – and I didn't receive one. "…Oh, that's right. I'm pointing a gun to your head. You're probably as scared of me right now as I was scared of you only a few moments ago…"

_This is it… That dense, condescending tone… This is how I remembered you… Without a doubt, it's you… You're the original. And now… Play your cards right. Otherwise –_

"…s…i…"

I wasn't sure if I'd been hearing things or what – but it seemed as if Nebiros…

"….si…l…."

…Was trying to speak…

"…sil…ver…"

"…Silver? What are you…?!"

And in that moment Nebiros grabbed my leg when I had let my guard down. While the Velvet Death apparently had a limitless number of shots to fire, the weapon did in fact have a small delay – a delay that kicked in when I wasn't focused on shooting. Letting out a roar, it yanked as hard as it could and pulled me down. And in that same motion, it tried to stab me with its claws.

But I'd expected such a move, and I'd rolled out of the way. I was still on the floor, but the Velvet Death was still pointed at its skull.

"Silver… Red…"

It was speaking – but it wasn't making any coherent sentences. It was just saying the names of colors.

"Look, I'm glad you can actually make more than battle cries come out of your mouth, but… What're you trying to say?"

"Silver…Hair… Red… Eyes…." It hissed, its lower jaw shifting ever so slightly.

Silver hair, and red eyes? What relevance was there to something like that? And why was it the only thing this demon could apparently say?

It occurred to me at that moment – Nero had silver hair and red eyes. But what connection was there? Why would Nebiros know anything about Nero?

It then let out a hoarse cry. And in another moment, it stood. I was about to rise to my feet to re-aim my shot…

But then it simply turned away. It turned away and ran. In a matter of moments, a worm hole opened up in the distance, and Nebiros ran straight towards it. It vanished into the worm hole, the hole quickly closing up behind it.

I let out a sigh before falling backward onto the ground.

_You can relax… It's gone._

I smirked slightly. "So… What was that about it being 'impossible' for me to scare the shit out of that thing?" And suddenly my eyes widened. I slapped myself across the face. "…A-And why am I so… I mean, why the hell am I… swearing so much?"

The voice chuckled. _The Velvet Death, if you recall, has a rather powerful effect on the wielder's emotions. The Arm Cannon form apparently makes the user more irritable and vulgar, as opposed to the scythe form, which just made you practically lust after it. _

"Who the hell gave it a function like that?! That's the dumbest shit I've ever heard!" I shouted before slapping myself across the face again.

…_Honestly, I'd hate to shift gears, what with how wonderful this conversation was, but you're about to have company. _

"Oh, right… Astaroth's gonna be pissed, isn't he?"

And the moment I said that another worm hole appeared in the distance – and flying out of it was Nero, who had seemingly taken a giant leap and, with her cleaver at the ready, was about to plunge it into me.

I sighed with frustration before carefully aiming the Velvet Death and firing.

I could actually see her eyes widen as the barrel of the gun lit up and the massive bullet blew her away rather instantly. She was sent flying, crashing into the faceless floor yet still making a rather prominent indent where she had landed. She wasn't quite dead, but even if she was she was very easily revivable.

It was only after I recalled Nero's gruesome reanimation that I diverted my attention to the worm hole, which still had yet to close.

And from the depths came that snake-like arm that belonged to some sort of a beast. It appeared so suddenly that I had no opportunity to counterattack. The massive clawed hand wrapped itself around me, the intent clearly being to choke me to death. I felt the full force of it, despite my apparently worthless mechanical enhancements.

And from within the worm hole appeared Astaroth, the snake-like arm protruding from where his own should be.

And then I saw his face. The scowl that seemed practically welded to his face was far more demonic and far more frightening than Nebiros ever was. If my personality wasn't being amplified by the Velvet Death I would've been visibly afraid.

"_Nerooooo…You worthless piece of shit…!_" He screamed.

"Hey, who's the piece of shit here?! You're the one with the screwed up child –"

And in that moment he did something so very frightening. He twisted is head in a very unnatural way so he was facing Nero. His eyes seem to light up so they appeared more like yellow flames than yellow moons.

And with a mighty roar, a massive wave of black fire spewed from his mouth and, in one heavily concentrated burst, simply erased Nero in her entirety. I blinked several times – but she simply wasn't there anymore. The flames had utterly pulverized her.

And in a matter of seconds, I could see them floating in the air. Tiny specs of black ash and soot. Tiny specs that were swirling in some wind that I couldn't feel.

Suddenly the specks started to clump together. More and more of them reformed and gathered around a singular point. And eventually they started to form a human body…

And I could hear it. I could hear an excruciating scream – a scream that belonged to the slowly re-forming Nero.

Eventually her form was complete –and she collapsed to the ground gagging heavily. She spoke no further. But I could see it in her eyes – she wanted to be anywhere else in the world but that close to that man – and she was only twenty feet away.

Astaroth turned to face me once more.

"And you… Do you have… Even the _slightest idea _as to what you've done?!"

"Enlighten me." … Why, oh, _why _did I say something like that?

"You didn't even do what you were supposed to… But for whatever reason, that monster decided to rear its ugly face for us anyway… And you _let it get away_." He snarled at me. "You let it escape… And why? To stroke your newfound ego? Was that it?" His massive hand tightened around me as his apparent rage slowly leaked out.

"It's impossible."

"What the hell are you saying?!" He shouted at me.

"We couldn't kill Nebiros. Right from the start it was impossible. And you _knew_ it was impossible."

"What gives you that idea?"

"The Velvet Death, despite being so capable of drawing Nebiros out, couldn't do a damn thing… I fired more shots at it than any living thing would be able to handle. But that still wasn't enough… Furthermore…"

"Furthermore…what?" He was clearly fed up with me.

"You… neglected… to tell me about the witty old man who you made this weapon out of."

…_Do I really seem that old to you?_

"Only and old man would talk the way you do and not want to punch themselves in the face for it."

Astaroth clearly noticed that my statement was directed at a third party. He then let go of me, his massive arm slithering back into place and, with a sickening crack, relocated itself into his shoulder.

He sighed. "I figured that if you didn't know about that old bastard, things would work out without as much effort on my part."

"I don't believe you. You knew Nebiros couldn't be defeated. You wanted me to fight it. Why?"

He sighed before he stared me down again with that neutral expression of his. Then he smirked, his eyes glinting with his deceit, now fully exposed.

"And what makes you think I'm going to just tell you?"

"You won't?"

"Of course not." He grunted with some amusement.

"Then I'll have to beat it out of you."

"You wouldn't dare… You're not _that _stupid." He grinned, bearing his teeth.

"You'd be surprised… I definitely didn't make any friends off of smarts. Let's put it that way."

"But you _know_. You _know_ what opposing me means."

I aimed the Velvet Death at him with no hesitation. While I was about to cross over into completely uncharted territory with this declaration of battle, my resolve was clear.

_Think about this._

"I've done enough thinking, thanks."

I'd seen what Astaroth had just done to Nero. I was certain he could do the same thing to me in a matter of seconds. But then again – he wanted me alive. And I had a feeling that it would take a bit more to reconstruct me than it would to reconstruct Nero, given how much effort he'd put into designing me in the first place.

But he'd still stomp me flat, if I gave him the chance.

I just wouldn't give him the chance.

He sighed. "…If you're going to give me trouble, I guess enforcing some discipline wouldn't… kill you." He chuckled before breaking out into a full, unrestricted, maniacal laughter.

In that moment he ran towards me. I readied Velvet Death and fired – but he dodged. He didn't slow down, didn't judge his distance from me, or asses the shot timing of the bullet – he simply dodged. He continued his sprint towards me –

And in a moment he was standing behind me, the sheath of the Demon Slayer Kusanagi in one of his open hands. He struck me from behind with it, using enough force to send me flying. I tumbled to the ground, but with some fancy legwork I managed to turn myself around and land on the balls of my feet before firing off another shot – all in a span of about three and a half seconds.

But Astaroth simply shifted his head to the side and avoided the shot entirely. He raised his left arm and suddenly a puff of black flames spat onto the ground in front of him.

And from within the flames came a long katana with a pitch black hilt which floated towards Astaroth's open hand. Readying himself, he took one step forward – before leaping towards me.

I fired several shots as I tried to back away, but the angle of his jump was simply too large –

He plunged the blade into my chest. I spat blood and my arms fell limp.

"It's over." He promptly said. "One more move and I've killed you… And with an imitation katana, of all things."

"A-An…"

"Oh, was the entrance a bit too flashy for you to realize? I left my plus ten sword of murder at home… This is just your run-of-the-mill katana. Face it – give up, and come back to the Corridor with us. You don't have a choice. I'll decide what to do with you afterward."

My weak eyes struggled to maintain their defiance… But my will was slipping away all too quickly.

_Do you understand your limit now? You can't just achieve whatever it is you want. You have limits. And Fate sets those limits. Your fate is sealed… _

"M-My fate… I don't… Believe you…There's no such…"

Astaroth spat at me. "And there you go… Saying the _same goddamn thing over and over again!_" He snarled. "Don't you _ever_ quit? Has that mantra of yours gotten you _anywhere_?!"

And then we both heard it – a very light giggle.

"…I don't know about you, but I think it's actually kinda cute."

Astaroth's eyes shot skyward –

And suddenly, a massive boulder came crashing down on him. Instead of simply letting go of the katana he ripped the entire blade out of my chest and attempted to slash the boulder in half. He failed, and it landed on top of him.

I staggered backward, looking towards the sky myself.

And in the air was a rather young looking girl wearing a completely out of place pink dress with what I believed to be Halloween decorations strewn throughout it. I was so certain I was seeing things even though it was very likely that I wasn't.

"You bitch…" A rather hoarse voice belonging to Astaroth shouted from beneath the boulder. "…This is _really fucking extreme_, don't you think?"

"Wasn't it a surprise? I mean – Super Paper, dropping a giant rock on someone? I spent all day coming up with it!" She bragged about her apparent lack of originality.

…Wait, what exactly was going on here?

The girl apparently noticed me staring at her and more or less came down from her place several feet in the air and landed in front of me. She sighed.

And I finally had full view of her face. And in a matter of seconds it all suddenly clicked.

This girl – Takano?!

"Hm… Bern's way cuter, but you'll do." She said with a rather evil smile. Grabbing me by the arm, she pointed upward, snapped her fingers, and a worm hole appeared in the air.

But in that moment Astaroth managed to shatter the boulder and lunged at her – only to be met with a very small, bright pink dagger with what seemed to be a poisoned edge, almost resting against his throat. And he actually stopped in his tracks.

"…You're joking."

"Of _course _I am." The girl smirked.

And in another moment a worm hole opened up to Astaroth's side – and a massive blood stained train flew through the opening, slamming into him and carrying him off into the distance through the sheer force of gravity.

"Alright, now that he's out of the way…" Her eyes suddenly widened as she looked towards the wormhole she'd opened only a moment ago. The same black flames from before were starting to fill the hole. "Eh… I should've known better." She then snapped her fingers in another direction and a similar wormhole appeared. Quickly, she dashed towards it, essentially dragging me along with her. I wondered if she even noticed that I was bleeding to death.

"Only a few more minutes." She shouted over her shoulder. I didn't have any reply prepared for her. Even though there were an endless number of questions flying through my head.

We managed to enter the wormhole a few seconds before flames engulfed that one as well. It seemed that Astaroth wasn't going to give up, at least not easily.

We were flying through some strange open space that seemed to have a flow to it, much like a water current. The girl now simply held onto me as we floated away from the rapidly sealing wormhole and towards… Wherever it was we were headed.

But from within the flames, an enraged Astaroth emerged and lunged towards us at a speed much faster than anything this girl could produce. The girl noticed a few seconds too late, but as she tried to open another wormhole to create some kind of escape route, the black flames instantly consumed it. It seemed that there was no way to go but onward.

With roaring laughter, Astaroth spread his arms and formed more of his black flames, sending them spiraling towards us as he hurtled after us.

"This might get a bit dicey… I wonder what Bern would do…?" She was apparently speaking to herself.

But at that moment the cannon on my arm seemed to heat up. With a blinding light, it suddenly vanished –

And at my side, in its place, was the source of that voice. He stood there, floating along with us. My vision was very hazy at this point, so I couldn't quite get a good look at him.

"Oh ho?" The girl appeared to be surprised, but the look on her face made her seem otherwise. "Oh, right. So _that's _where you were hiding."

"I wouldn't say I was hiding… It's been a long time since I've been in one of these… I'm pretty surprised I could shift forms given the circumstances." He spoke in the same low voice, although now it didn't echo. "But enough's enough. You need to get her to safety… But I'm pretty sure I don't need to tell you why."

"I know…" She responded rather lazily. "…But really, I didn't expect anything quite like that. It's no wonder Tohya's taken a liking to you."

"Has he? Well then, maybe I'll come back in the sequel."

"This _is _the sequel." She lightly giggled.

"Oh… Well, I can always fall back on the 'Not Quite Dead' trick."

"That is… If your doppelgänger doesn't erase you first."

"W-Wait…" I spoke somewhat weakly. "What is she saying…? What're you going to do?"

"It's simple. You two need to get away. And if I'm busy fighting Astaroth, he can't chase you. He can transfer his entire body through those flames, but if he's physically attached to anything – or anyone – else, he's stuck."

"B-But… What'll…"

He made another amused grunt. He was taking this far too lightly. I'd only known him for a short period of time – but he was already ready and willing to throw himself at Astaroth so I could escape.

That wasn't right. It wasn't fair – had I even done anything to deserve such protection?

"You're still completely oblivious… Even now, when it's almost too late to do anything about it. Well, you'll find out sooner rather than later."

"Don't… I won't… let you…"

He laughed. "I'd love to see you try, but as tempting as it sounds I don't have time to waste. So neither do you."

"But…"

"Rika." He whispered. He turned to face me, and I could see a very small portion of his face. "You're… Just so… Stupid." He then turned to face the girl. "Lambda. Take her to Wales so she's off his radar. The conference is meeting in the UK this time, apparently."

I didn't have a response. I knew he meant something far more specific than simply insulting my intelligence. I just had no idea what.

"You think I don't know? You just focus on getting yourself killed, alright?"

Then he faced me again, grinning slightly. "I was expecting some kind of insult. But then again I'm not glued to your arm anymore… You know, despite everything that's happened because of it, maybe it would've been better if you'd just kept on dreaming… I'm sorry."

And with that, he turned away and went flying against the current and towards Astaroth. All I could see was the two of them collide.

"No…" I hoarsely tried to shout.

"Look, he might be older than most of us, but he's not half bad in a fight. Or so I've been told." The girl, apparently named Lambda, tried to reassure me. "I'd be more worried about _you_, as a matter of fact. Just don't fall asleep, okay?"

It reoccurred to me that I was bleeding to death. I assumed that my enhancements made the damage less apparent over time, but I was still at least partially human.

After some time had passed without either one of us saying anything, I heard her suddenly introduce herself.

"I'm Lady Lambdadelta. Usually I make people say the whole thing, but since you're basically Bern's little sister I'll let you just call me Lambda."

"Bern…? And why do you…"

"Why do I look like a certain heartless bitch? Because I _am_ a heartless bitch. Does it matter who I look like? I'm a bit offended, you know. Bern's little sister shouldn't ask such dumb questions." She pouted. She clearly wasn't as angry as she claimed to be, but…

It connected. She was talking about Bernkastel. This girl was a friend of Bernkastel's, or at least a mild acquaintance of her. The latter honestly seemed more likely.

"You're gonna need the whole story, aren't you…?" She'd apparently taken the hint that I knew essentially nothing. "Well, at least I won't have to tell you. Since there'll be plenty of people who can do that where we're going."

It had occurred to me that our destination was apparently Wales. Why we were traveling to a place with such an odd name was beyond me, but then again, at the time, _everything _was beyond me. All I knew was that the voice in the cannon was as human as I was, and he'd given himself up to certain death so I could escape.

I knew the chances were very slim, but I hoped he was alright. I'd probably blame myself if he turned up dead – it _was_ theoretically my fault, after all.

Eventually, the current around me became warm. The entire space began to heat up. As Lambdadelta didn't have any sudden outburst to this occurrence, I assumed it was perfectly normal. Or she could simply feel like being quiet for the moment. Which I severely doubted. Her personality type didn't seem to leave any room for such a thing.

"We're almost there… You can go to sleep now, you know. We're in safe territory now." She apparently gave me the okay to fall asleep – or in my case, faint from exhaustion.

I shut my eyes. They felt incredibly heavy, as they had for the last thirty minutes or so. I had figured it would be difficult to fall asleep in such a strange position, floating in the air like this, but it was far easier than I ever could've imagined.

I felt my consciousness slipping away. I wondered – where would I be when I woke up? Would Lambdadelta have just dropped me off in the middle of nowhere? Such an idea, at least to the old me, would've felt extremely odd and made me very uncomfortable.

But the way things were now –If I didn't wake up, I was simply dead. That was all there was to it. I didn't believe my situation could get any worse. The way things were now death wasn't anywhere near as frightening an idea as it had once been.

But it made sense, to some degree at least. Why I'd left myself in Lambdadelta's hands so easily. Why I'd stood against Nebiros' guaranteed death and why I even entertained the thought of defeating Astaroth. I'd abandoned my fear. I'd abandoned the things that tied me to my fate.

And to think – I'd wanted to stop being human. I was so afraid of feeling the pain of being alive, but now I've stared death in the face in two consecutive caged death matches and haven't even broken down.

The man's words had definitely changed me.

But even then -

I hadn't abandoned _all _of my fears.

I feared for that man's life. I was afraid he was dead.

I wasn't afraid to risk my own life.

But I was still afraid to risk others. And his sacrifice made me aware of that once again.

I wondered how long it would go on. I wondered when the cycle would stop.

I wondered when – or if – I wouldn't have to be afraid at all anymore.

* * *

_Wales, the United Kingdom_

Several hours later, after my wounds somehow healed on their own, I find myself in a massive meeting hall – the room itself was large enough to be an atrium, sitting several thousand people in seats that seemed to be filling up fairly rapidly. The walls were adorned with massive paintings, at least twenty feet tall, of various people that I believed were witches. The entire room seemed to be stylized after an old European theatre, which made sense given the archaic clothing some of the other guests were wearing. Lambdadelta's absurdly bright pink dress actually seemed more modern by comparison.

I was somewhat overwhelmed. I'd never seen something so massive in my life. I was sitting in a boxed seat somewhere near the top – it would seem that Lambdadelta is fairly highly ranked, much to my surprise. But we had butlers with goat heads serving us tea the entire time while Lambdadelta went on and on about how much she missed Bernkastel and all of that.

It would seem that we were here for some sort of meeting – a meeting that I apparently was important to. Otherwise I doubted that I'd be in a place like this. I've tried asking Lambdadelta for an explanation several times, but I've never managed to solicit a response from her – it was as if she were hiding things from me on purpose. Thinking about it, though, it wouldn't be surprising at all if that were the case.

Eventually as most of the seats seemed to fill up, someone sat in one of the five large chairs at the very bottom in the center of the room. After clearing their throat, they shouted for everyone in the room to be seated – very loudly for someone not making use of a microphone. The man was wearing some strange black robe with a golden butterfly etched on the back – he was wearing a hood, so I couldn't quite see his face.

"Oooh…" Lambdadelta – ah, right, I'm supposed to be calling her, Lambda – makes a peculiar sound. "He's the only one here today… Looks like this is worse than I thought."

"Hm?" I actually try pressing her for answers to some of my questions. Luckily, she answers without much restraint.

"There are five families of the senate. They all are required to attend these meetings… The only times they are excused are by extraordinary circumstances… But there's never been only _one _before."

"Extraordinary circumstances?"

"Solar systems exploding, fragments getting re-written – the usual thing. Of course with our pal Astaroth running around doing his own thing it's a whole lot worse. Of course there's also _that _moron trying to make a statement… What a kid."

Before I can question, the man suddenly speaks.

"I must first and foremost express my gratitude for this crowd – in such trying times, you all have appeared without fail. For that I am thankful – but as you see, four of our sovereign families are missing… And not that anyone is surprised by this, but Mistress Aurora is once again absent from our ranks."

The room erupts into laughter that dies down fairly quickly.

"Bern's teacher." Lambda whispers to me. "Scary lady. Really scary. So scary she doesn't have to show up to things like these if she doesn't want to."

The man clears his throat. "That aside, we now have several matters that need to be attended to – first and foremost of these being the topic on everyone's minds. This of course being the collapse of Andromeda no more than twelve hours ago."

The collapse of… Andromeda? Was that some kind of country?

"He's talking about the galaxy." Lambda whispers. "That demon you were chasing? It took over enough fragments that it made some serious changes."

I wasn't sure what was going on – but Nebiros had done enough damage to the sea to alter reality?

But weren't the fragments supposed to be self contained?

But then again, that man had said it – he'd told me that everything I knew was wrong.

The man then explained the principles of the problem, luckily enough for me. In short, every fragment was its own individual possibility. Each possibility is validated in its own way and co-exists with all other possibilities. Perhaps if enough possibilities were removed and replaced with the possibility that Nebiros spread, then the larger possibilities would begin to fade away as well.

It suddenly hit me. The number of potential universes would grow smaller and smaller. Fate would become the sole governing principle of reality. The number of possibilities would grow smaller and smaller and as more were expunged the very laws of our reality would become undone, slowly but steadily.

The result would essentially be the unraveling of creation – the rewinding of the world as we know it.

Astaroth had lied. The sea of fragment would not be plunged into total chaos. There wouldn't be any chaos for the sea to plunge into. The boundary of fiction and reality would vanish into the haze. The foundations of human thought would be undone.

If Nebiros were to continue its rampage…

July 1st of 1983 would never come.

There would be no future.

The world would end.

But not just the world.

Everything.

Everything would end.

But was that was Astaroth truly wanted? Then why make me fight a battle he knew I couldn't win?

And more importantly – how? How could I win now? There had to be a way, right?

The more I thought about it the less I believed so.

The man suddenly changes the subject. "But now, we have other pressing matters to attend to, primarily the disappearance of Lady Bernkastel… If I was informed correctly, Lady Lambdadelta is with us today… I trust her findings will be of the upmost importance."

"I didn't find Bern. Don't get your hopes up…" Suddenly, she hoists me off of my seat and into the air, thrusting me towards the rest of the audience. "…I _did _find her little sister, though."

I'm far too stunned to say or do anything. The crowd begins talking amongst itself before someone eventually shouts.

"She's taller, at any rate." The room bursts into laughter. I actually feel fairly embarrassed, but judging from Lambda's grip on my shoulders she's furious.

"The thing is… I found her hanging out with a certain little bird…"

The crowd once again begins to talk amongst itself. Eventually, someone else calls out.

"I thought I smelled those damnable flames. That explains it."

"And what do you plan to do with her?"

"I don't see how this helps us in any way!"

Eventually the shouts are silenced by the man – I finally realize what this crowd wants. They want Bernkastel. They want a miracle because they believe they've run out of options.

They were all afraid.

I very quickly began to hate this crowd.

"In any event, there must be some significance behind this… However, I'm afraid we cannot rely on the Demon King's pet project to solve our problems."

"Of course not." I whisper vehemently.

"As it is now, we cannot assume any sort of offensive position – we simply lack the manpower and there isn't enough as far as resources are concerned to track down the Demon King. At this point, we can only let things play out."

"What about Wright?!" Someone shouts. "We just voted on her damned promotion – shouldn't we have _her _deal with this?" The crowd seems to concur.

"Wizard Hunting Wright is the head of a department of detectives. Not foot soldiers. When she left her position of High Inquisitor, her military connections didn't go with her."

"Then who is the… High Inquisitor… now?" I whisper to Lambda who finally put me down.

"Hell if I know… It's a shame, though. She was good at her job."

The entire hall was alive with argument. The man on the lower level kept reinforcing his claim – there was no way that any higher power was going to be able to handle Astaroth. There wasn't much I believed they could do even _if _they had all the resources they needed.

Eventually I grow tired of the constant banter. It was a situation where mindless people were begging their rulers for an easy way out of their problems without ever trying to do things themselves. I turn to leave, even though I wasn't even remotely familiar with the area outside. Lambda didn't seem particularly interested in stopping me.

"Just don't get lost." She suddenly chimes in as I leave through the entryway behind our seats.

I wander outside onto the platform. The entire hall was part of what was evidently known as the Department of Mid Sorcery Affairs, a systematic public service esque facility that catered to witches and the like that were high up in some delirious ranking system that made about as much sense as my current circumstances. It took the shape of a massive sphere surrounded by slowly rotating rings that served as walkways simply floating in the air just above a small town in Wales – I'd never even known the name of this place before now, but something so unnatural seemed to co-exist with a perfectly natural town ever so suspiciously well. I assumed that this was invisible to humans in all ways imaginable.

The time has come – there isn't anything left for me here. I have to stage my counterattack before it's too late. I'm close to the end of everything and the reality of Nebiros' invasion makes that all the more apparent, but I'm far enough away that I can still find the path to victory.

But I have to understand it all – I have to reach the truth, here and now.

I have to reason out the mystery behind that man – Astaroth, the Demon King. Only then could I truly defeat him. That man had told me that everything I was being subject to was built on a lie. And the only way to reveal the truth would be to tear apart the wall Astaroth had built around it.

I step out onto one of the rotating rings and into the summer air of Wales – it seemed so strange, being in a place like this. It was pouring rain, and the air was cold enough to pass for a midwinter afternoon in Hinamizawa. I'd almost forgotten what the rain and cold felt like – I'd been trapped in that endless summer for so long it was like my mind and body had simply forgotten that rain and wind were things. This places seemed so dark and dreary – wasn't 'fun in the sun' a phrase associated with summer? But with this weather – I can see a place like this disregarding the idea of summer altogether. I'm certain that there were people that would retire to warmer places to spend the summer at, but even then there were still a great many people that populated this place. Perhaps it was money related.

Or perhaps this place had found futility in such an idea – perhaps they'd diverted their attention to something more important than the seasons of the year? Maybe they'd chosen to discard 'fun in the sun' for something they found more meaning in? Or perhaps they were simply longing for a warm summer, yet had abandoned the hopes of having one?

I found myself forming an odd connection with the landscape around me – perhaps it was a reflection of what was going on inside me. The part of me that wants to live peacefully with my friends in Hinamizawa and the other part that discards the prospect of that happiness and desires the truth have been battling for the longest time – this was never more certain to me than it was just a short while ago.

When I killed Rena, I was killing Nero. I was giving myself a head start on approaching Nebiros. And in the end it served no purpose. Rena was certainly twisted in that fragment – Nero spared Mion no quarter, even though the two were supposed to be best friends. It wasn't until I realized that the body lying before me was Rena's that it finally hit me.

I stare up at the dark grey sky. I close my eyes as the rain splashes my face.

I had to disregard what I wanted to believe.

The moment I killed her – I felt it.

I felt the hate built up inside of me finally give way.

I hated Nero.

But who exactly was it I hated, again?

I only understood now.

The person I hated – they had given themselves the name Nero.

Nero isn't human.

Then what is she?

She's the embodiment of something I witnessed for all but a single moment during my captivity, under the spell of that dream that now seemed like it held all the answers to my questions.

The idea of Nero – the idea of the person I hated.

That idea was Ryuugu Rena, in her most primal form.

I saw it in her – the moment she struck Nebiros, I saw it.

Desire.

Desire to risk and be rewarded.

Desire to have purpose.

Desire to protect.

The glint in her eyes –

The same glint in Nero's eyes.

Nero and Rena – they suffered the same fate in that fragment. Nero had seemingly implied that the moment we met.

Because they were both the same person.

The Rena of that first fragment – my dream. She was a quiet flame, brightly burning. Nero, on the other hand, was a forest fire, spreading from sea to sea.

Both are still made of the same flames, born from the same spark. The same spark, longing for that which it desires most more than anything else.

Nero is Rena.

She is essentially the same as I am – her emotions have long since gone haywire and only her drive towards her goal gives her the strength to live. But this is self explanatory. What does it mean?

It means that Nero isn't some inhuman bastardization of my friend.

They are one and the same.

And here, the sky reflects my state of mind. Part of me wants to stop thinking – to go back to my peaceful days with the Rena I know, living out the final hours of our village, making the most of what we have. But the other part rejects that mentality. I abandon my allegory for summer and acknowledge the haze that enshrouds it. I attack that haze relentlessly until I can no longer draw breath. I want to break through the haze. I want to move forward – I don't care about the past; not anymore. This is my world now. And even if all those others were going to cling to their personal allegory for summer, I'll abandon mine in an instant.

So what was Nero's true aspiration?

The most appropriate question would be – what does Rena want the most?

To live peacefully with her friends?

I almost laugh out loud.

That was a hopeful and naïve way of thinking.

Rena was a woman, first and foremost.

And knowing that…

…

In the moments before I turned on her, she tried to reason with me.

She tried to pass herself off as the typical Rena, but she didn't fool me for an instant. She intended to disobey Irie's request and jeopardize our entire plan for catching Nebiros in the act – all for the sake of Keiichi. Perhaps that was why Astaroth vaporized her so readily – because she'd been planning to mess up as much as I had.

She wants Keiichi. More than anything.

She'd gladly wipe away this whole world just to save him – that was her true wish.

I had to accept this. Rena might have been a sweet girl who cared about those close to her. But deep down, hidden underneath the stone wall that built up around her heart through her years of suffering, there was Nero.

Her hatred for me, Mion, and likely Shion and Satoko as well, ran so deep that perhaps by killing her I was just shutting out something that had always been there. Perhaps by ending Nero at that moment, I was rejecting Rena for who she was with as much finality as possible.

I killed her. But right now my feelings on this matter aren't important. _Her _feelings matter that much more.

She's just a desperate girl, craving love and cherishment more than anything else.

I'd heartlessly taken that away from her – that I realized the moment I killed her.

But Astaroth, the Demon King, gave her the chance to fulfill her dreams.

_Why?_

To crush her hopes altogether?

But why go through the trouble? He isn't the kind to make any unnecessary moves.

The more I thought about him, the more I seemed to realize that I knew nothing about him. But he's the dark side of Keiichi. That much I knew.

I can't examine things from his point of view. There's not enough information. Can I really not come to the right conclusion?

… But perhaps there is more significance in Nebiros.

Nebiros, the demon infecting all fragments that incorporate the June of 1983 in the past, present, or future. Astaroth desired for me to face Nebiros and lose. Why? What purpose could there possibly be?

Could it have been to send a message? Could it have been some way for him to gain power?

What could he possibly have gained from making me as strong as feasibly possible and then have me fight an impossible opponent? Could there have been to show me that no amount of strength could usurp something like Nebiros?

…But then again, ignoring the demon aspect, what _was _Nebiros in the first place? Was it anything like Nero? An aspect of someone, perhaps a deep-seated fear come to life? If there was significance in my failure to kill Nebiros, and my death at its hands…

Perhaps if I focus on the fragments themselves… Perhaps then I could find the answer.

The dream once again comes to mind. I've ignored everything around me but the murders and who carried them out that I haven't even stopped to examine the state of the world beforehand until now.

The murders in the dream – they started in Okinomiya, hence the presence of that Saturn Anne character and the Okinomiya mob. That causes Hinamizawa to ultimately plunge into chaos and burn to ashes. But in the meantime, we were fleeing for our lives, so it made sense that I wouldn't have particularly considered it before.

The killings placed a shadow on the Sonozaki family. And why? Because they were reminiscent, if not entirely identical, to the events of a serial murder case that took place in the years before. Okinomiya citizens, killed in brutal ways – it was reminiscent of the events surrounding Okinomiya citizens that were regular patrons at the Blue Mermaid, a Sonozaki-run establishment.

These killings – the killings done by Nebiros, if we are to believe the demon aspect of all of this – were carried out in such a way that the family would be one again placed under suspicion, this time incurring violence.

There is significance in these murders – the murders of the year past. The murders that were repeated by the demon. The true culprits of those murders – if Mion's conversation with Oishi is anything to go by – were the Onigafuchi Guardians, the same group responsible for the bulk of the incidents related to the dam war.

Perhaps _that _is where the significance lies. Why would a demon carry out the same set of murders? To bring shame and chaos to the Sonozaki name? Why would a demon care for that sort of thing in the first place? The Onigafuchi Guardians, as well as the era of shady Sonozaki crime, had all but been snuffed out by the June of 1983.

There had to be more. Enough about what Nebiros is or what it isn't – the mere idea of Nebiros all hinges on the reality of those murders.

But isn't it impossible? Isn't it impossible to follow a lead that is so obscured by the passage of time that it's barely recognizable?

But there had to be some way.

In Hinamizawa, at that time…

The reality would be intentionally obscured.

The Sonozaki family was the true power in Hinamizawa. Of course the reality of the murders the family was responsible for would be obscured. Mion and Shion would both take the reality to the grave without hesitation if either one of them was in on it.

But even during the time of the Guardians…

There was opposition.

There were small rays of light that shined through the haze.

I had to find them. But here, in 2036? Was something like that even possible? I most certainly couldn't make use of the Akarana Corridor again, but…

"So you've gotten your head straight?" I hear a voice behind me.

It's Lambda, standing on the rotating ring next to me with an unnecessarily pink umbrella on one hand.

"I know where I need to go. But I can't get there." Trying not to say too much, my words are unnecessarily cryptic – I doubt she needs much to see through me anyhow.

"You know, you _can _get to where you need to go without anyone's help. You're at the point where you don't even need _me _anymore. Can you believe that?" She grins.

"What're you saying?"

"You're old enough now. You're more like… Bern's slightly younger sister right now. You've got the look in your eyes – I can let you go without any regrets."

"You're sounding like a parent. Stop that. It's creepy."

"See? That's exactly what Bern would say." She turns away from me and walks back towards the sphere. "Since I'm in the mood, I'll give you a little hint. Wouldn't you say… That the first place you need to check out would be where it all began?"

"You mean… Return to Hinamizawa?"

"Return to Hinamizawa." She repeats monotonously.

"But there's no way –"

"Do you somehow already know what you're going to find? Sorry, but not even Bern was that good."

"But even so –"

"Do you _know _what you're going to find? Or are you just assuming?"

She actually had a point.

No, I didn't know what would be there now, fifty three years later. Could there have been something other than death left behind?

Perhaps it was different in this fragment…

It reminds me of that time, now so long ago, that I held on to every little difference I could find in the world around me and treat them all with as much optimism as possible. That aspect is missing now, although I can't really reason out why…

Perhaps I actually missed that old man after all?

Or perhaps…

…

For a moment, it was as if I were Rika Furude again.

For a moment, I thought the way she would.

I recall my allegory for summer in that one instant.

And then I knew.

I have to go back.

I have to return to Hinamizawa.

With that I leap from the floating sphere, down to the town below.

I can see it.

I can see it all unfolding, before my eyes…

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

So that's that. E Chapter should be up sometime in the near future. So yeah. Look forward to it and keep on reading.


	11. E Chapter: The Fourth World

_**Author's Note**_

Yeah, in the event that you noticed, _Hollow Forest _is now _Furthest Future_. There's a very explicit reason for this change. But as usual, I'm not saying a thing about it. Moving on…

Okay, so here we go… Just a heads up – this chapter is 17.5k words long. I'm not even fudging those numbers in the slightest. And I can't cut _any _of it out. That's just how much _stuff _happens in this chapter. It's nothing like the 25k nightmare that was _End Dreamer's _finale, but it's still a doozy. So have fun. If you can brave through this chapter, you can take _anything _I can throw at you.

* * *

_**E Chapter – The Fourth World**_

_Onigafuchi (June 1__st__)  
__Riku Furude (Age: 20)_

There was once a time when the world wasn't afraid. But that time has long since passed. And there is nothing that will ever restore the world to that state. I know this now more than ever. The world fears itself. Humanity fears that which lurks within itself – fears that have manifested into that which now freely roams my world, hunting and preying on fear wherever it goes, without end and for all eternity.

This is the reality of our land. The reality of our slowly forming nation. The reality of the entire world.

But at the same time – there is but one force in the world that counteracts that fear. That acts as a balance in our world. Perhaps it is the only surviving shred of the dignity our world had at its inception.

And that shred is hope. The only thing more powerful than the fear that grips our world.

And I will be that hope. Even if it is just me, alone – I will bring the hope that scatters the fear.

I'd never truly understood the concept of hope before that day, ten years prior. When I'd seen her eyes that day – she was so trapped in her pit of despair. The optimistic light that she always held was snuffed out like a candle. She was so utterly hopeless – that contrast changed the way I saw everything. And so I vowed never to stand by and watch someone fall into a pit of despair ever again.

In the years following that incident I became more and more bitter, if I have to describe my change. Ten years is more than enough to change a person completely, although my change was less gradual and more… Well, more immediate. I'd seen so many horrid things on that one day – I was instantly made aware of everything around me that I'd shut out before.

And before too long, I was already heading in the direction that would govern my future. With the departure of the Yatagarasu and the coping the incident thereafter I found myself understanding how quickly things seemed to change – and so I strived to stop that change, no matter what I had to do in order to do so. People dread change. People fear change. But people are forced to deal with change. Change is relentless. And so it was my goal to change _that_. To change the very idea of change, if that makes any amount of sense. Change cannot be resisted – it is hopeless to try. But if people could look upon change with joy instead of fear – that in itself would be more than enough.

And attempting to do so took ten years. But even then it wasn't enough – I'd only changed myself, and in the end a world where change wouldn't be feared would never come. But I'd at least given hope to the people around me. Hope that soon they would so desperately need.

I began training. I was far too weak for my or anyone else's good. I was unable to stand up to what I later learned was a very low class demon and had to rely on a deity to save me, along with my closest friend. It was my hesitation and fear that led to that life changing event, and so I had to change for the better. I had to become the hope for all of Onigafuchi.

Of course all the while, considering how my training was deemed top priority, I was deemed unfit to maintain the shrine's duties and so the title of Furude Priest was passed to my uncle of all people. He was determined to stick close to me to ensure that the moment I let my guard down he'd be able to tie Sayaka to me with iron chains in a flash. It's not as if his plan went anywhere, though.

When I was seventeen I finally mastered Kusanagi. The winds of that blade obeyed me and me alone. There was no other man and likely no other demon that could wield it the way I could. I'd nearly perished countless times while attempting to do so, but the risk was rewarded.

Of course with that power, it only made sense that I'd lose control of it. When I turned eighteen and was officially recognized as the new head of the Furude clan, I took to the woods and slaughtered the demons that roamed them. It turned into a bloody massacre before too long – it came to the point where I was no longer controlling my actions. The blade moved on its own and carved a path of blood through the once peaceful woods surrounding the village. But it was all as intended. I would purge the world of those demonic presences and become hope for everyone.

But in the aftermath of that attack more damage was done than was necessary. My actions may have been the cause of the first demon invasion that following year, even. In the end the demons did suffer, but the people of Onigafuchi suffered more. But I had to do it. There was no negotiating with them. I'd destroyed valuable farmland and after the invasion several sections of housing, but there was no other way, was there? And the people – they blamed the demons. They followed me, as seemingly ignorant as I was because of my status.

They trusted me. They trusted me to make decisions for them. But was I truly fit for that sort of thing? They certainly seemed to think so.

Of course, when I turned twenty, things seemed to catch up to me and I knew for certain that they were wrong – they were all wrong, all from the very start.

All that time, it had never occurred to me why Chinami had been attacked in the first place. Garm, the demon responsible for her near death, was not aggressive towards humans under normal circumstances.

I would soon learn that the world of demons wasn't all that different from my own – in fact, demons suffered as much as we did. How was that even possible? At first I didn't believe it. But in the end it was made clear that demons and humans had to co-exist peacefully. And there was one person that was the cause of it all – the change in my heart, the change all around me – the change that I had tried so hard to prevent, now the sort of change that I couldn't live without…

It was on the first of June, just as it had been in the past. The first of June, ten years later.

I had been hunting demons in the forest with several other men from the village – I'd started traveling in groups some time ago, primarily because being the sole figurehead in the village would only cause me trouble – there were certainly other men in Onigafuchi. And before too long, if I didn't try to ally myself with them, they'd find some way to turn on me.

There were three of us at the time – evidently the three most powerful men in the village. When it came down to it, though, I was the only one that wasn't married already and therefore had the lesser status, although being the Furude clan head, which most certainly had more power than either of the other families, still counted for something.

I'd actually gotten to know these two in the years following that incident. There was Kimiyoshi Norio, a full year younger than I was and married to a woman who evidently took him purely for status. He lacked significant backbone, and in the end his marriage, and therefore his status, was going to fall apart if he was unable to produce a child for his wife. He hunted demons with me purely so he could escape his hellish home life, although he'd never admit that to anyone.

The other man was the complete opposite. He was a full year older than me and without my position being as high as it is he would most certainly have aimed to knock me off my pedestal. This man was Sonozaki Mao, a completely twisted man who evidently got a craving for demon blood during that invasion. His home was apparently destroyed and his mother was killed – he married some time after, but his hatred for demons rivaled my own at the time. I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd intimidated his wife into marrying him – of all the people in the village, he was the only one who had actually developed into a threat. He was here to kill – and perhaps pray for the moment that I'd let my guard down. His name is somewhat suitable to him – especially considering where his path in life eventually takes him.

We were hunting fairly quietly that day. There were very few demons out and about – much fewer than usual. Of course neither of the other men with me knew enough to find it suspicious. I had a feeling that something was amiss, but it was almost twilight when I decided that we'd done enough for the day. On our return trip we end up fending off very little.

We were only a mile from the village when we came across a demon that was already very injured and would likely die on its own before too long. I saw no value in killing it. Mao, of course, had to straggle it with his hands while it begged for mercy.

"Compassion for beasts isn't befitting of the leader of our village…" He speaks rather coldly, facing away from me. "Our goal is to kill them all, isn't it?"

"That one was going to die on its own. There was no sense in pursuing it, but you had other plans. That's all." I respond.

"But could you be so sure? Were you willing to risk the success of your lifelong task so lazily?"

"I wasn't risking anything."

"So you say…" He trails off. I got the message loud and clear, though – if I couldn't stand by my way of life there was no point in living it. And by proxy I would not be fit to rule the village.

Kimiyoshi attempts to talk back to him in my stead, but he is shot down rather instantly.

"Then what would you have me do instead? Clearly you aren't pleased with how things are right now. I'm your leader – let me hear your problems."

He grunts. "If we are going to even try to solve this problem, it has to be done the right way. Off in the distance there's a cave – it's where these things live. Where they hide away."

"So you suggest we attack this cave?"

"Exactly."

"Very well."

"Furude-sama –" Kimiyoshi tries to object, but I silence him.

"It's fine. We're ahead of schedule anyhow… Well, feel free to lead the way." All the while my eyes never leave the back of his head for a moment. My gaze is intense and I know he can feel it. We have a mutual understanding – if he tries to threaten my position he'll get stomped down. He knows that. So he shouldn't make any false moves.

Mao leads the way. He leads us through a rather far off section of the woods that we usually don't explore. I'd been out here as a child before, but that was before these woods were dangerous. Eventually we move far enough away from familiar territory that I feel that we are out of are comfort zone – Kimiyoshi knows it and his concern practically beams off of him, but Mao continues forward. I was beginning to wonder how he knew of such a far off area in the first place.

Eventually we come to a fairly damaged area of woods. The trees are barren of all leaves and the grass is scorched. This was clearly uninhabitable territory – yet ahead of us was the cave Mao had spoken of.

We enter the cave without a word. I watch Mao carefully as we pass through some strange fog that had built up near the entrance.

And we were surrounded by them – the interior of the cave was filled with demons. They were all humanoid and seemed to have fairly human skin, but atop their heads were horns varying in size. I unsheathed Kusanagi slightly, sending the usual shockwave throughout the cave. The demons didn't attack. In fact, they cowered in fear.

"Heh. You see? These filth even fear you… They are ignorant and foolish, yet they waste away here. What a waste…" Mao looks to his side.

Relatively close to him were two demons – a mother and her child, the child being no older than five. Mao makes eye contact with the mother who instinctively pulls her child closer. He grins and walks towards her. With as much heartlessness as I believed was humanly possible, he rips the child from her arms, hoisting it into the air by its head. The mother begs in whatever language she was speaking as Mao makes it perfectly clear what he's about to do.

"Enough." I call out. "Killing a child will solve nothing."

"This child will grow into a monster that will come and try to kill us. But now it's a weakling. This is the perfect time."

I understand his point… But… Looking upon these demons, something strikes up within me. I search the mother's eyes –

And I see it. I see that same despair that I saw in Chinami that day.

And in that moment I understood.

Demons were capable of suffering, just as humans were.

"No. This isn't right."

"What's wrong?" He laughs at me as his hand tightens around the child's head. "Riku Furude, head of the Furude clan and the leader of our precious village – hesitating to kill a _demon_? The subjects would be _most upset_." He bears his teeth at me.

"Sonozaki-san, this isn't-"

Mao shouts at Kimiyoshi for speaking up. As usual, Kimiyoshi cowers in fear and in the end achieves nothing.

"Put the child down." I repeat my command.

"I refuse." He laughs.

"Are you challenging my authority?"

He then laughs as loudly as he could. "You have no authority out here. Now…" He then turns towards the demons further into the cave. He then calls out. "Which one of you?! Which one of you has what I seek?! Come forth, or this one dies!"

The demons are startled, but not a single one of them makes a move.

"Very well then…" With that, the child's muffled scream echoes through the cave. The mother is on her knees, still begging.

I have only a few seconds to react. But what consequences could the option I was leaning towards bring?

I can still see that hopelessness in her eyes.

I unsheathe Kusanagi, and in one swift swing I claim Mao's right arm. He howls in pain and the child falls to the ground with the arm. The mother scrambles to the child and pulls him away as fast as possible.

What am I doing…?

What sense does this make?

"F-Furude-sama…!" I turn towards Kimiyoshi who was in about as much shock as I was.

"Leave now!" I shout at him. "Speak of this to no one!" He nods his head vigorously and in a panic leaves the cave.

But suddenly Mao's screams of pain turn to laughter. His short green hair suddenly grows to shoulder length and is rather suddenly dyed crimson – and his arm seemingly re-grows almost instantly. The skin is raw. His fingers are clawed.

He lets out a massive roar – and in that moment the demons all simultaneously panic and race out of the cave, one by one. Mao turns and attempts to chase them, but he only makes it a few feet out of the cave before I suddenly remember what I'm doing and move to stop him.

His eyes are glowing red. His smile is far too demonic.

"Tell me…" I question him. "For how long have you been this way?"

He laughs. "I'm surprised that the great Riku Furude wasn't aware of a demon right under his nose… But not just any demon."

"What? Are you suggesting there's significance to you?"

"I'm almost amazed you don't remember me… After all, wasn't I the one who dramatically changed your life?"

I rack my brain for some sort of a solution to his cryptic hint –

No, it wasn't possible.

"At one point Mao Sonozaki was weak. He hated everything around him and wanted to become strong enough to take on all of those that ever looked down on him. That includes you, of course. But how could he possibly defeat the one who wields the Demon Slayer Kusanagi? Surely, there had to be a way." He laughs louder. "But then _I _found him, as fragile as I was! And I granted him power! And now, we are one and the same! His will is mine, and so I will end your life, I will claim the life of that miserable Kimiyoshi – and then I will return and mend Onigafuchi… I'll have what I've always wanted!"

Then it was true. When a demon is slain, if their will is strong enough they do not completely die – they descend to Yomi and, if the goddess of death takes pity on them, they return to the surface as youkai, spirits that haunt the land. And this spirit was that of the Garm that nearly killed Chinami, pushed to this point with hate and driven mad with Mao's ambition of usurping me.

"This almost saddens me. But this works out perfectly…" I ready Kusanagi. "For ten years – I've wanted a moment like this." I swing, creating the wave of wind. But he dodges it without much difficulty. He draws his katana, and in a matter of moments we're locked in combat, evenly matched.

But shouldn't Kusanagi have the power to cleave demons in a single swing?

Ah, that's right –

Mao is still at least somewhat human. Perhaps turning this blade on my own kind…

Perhaps it was impossible. Perhaps it was simply created that way.

I dodge his first few swings. I settle for parrying several more. I strike him several times, but my swings seem to have virtually no effect. I watch his moves carefully – he may have the superhuman strength of a demon, but his sword skills were still not as refined as mine were.

Our battle continues. I attempt to make some sort of dent in his skin, which now seems more like impenetrable armor. There's no doubt in my mind that this demon reinforced Mao's body beyond human capabilities. Perhaps I simply didn't stand a chance.

I lose my cool. I want nothing more now than to finish him off. I want my revenge. I want to redeem myself for having stood by ten years ago. And now was the time… So why couldn't I…?!

I miss a step. He slashes along my chest. My blood sprays. I fall backward. He laughs before he stomps on me several times. Each stomp hurts far more than they should – he was simply physically too strong for me to defeat. He eventually kicks me with enough force to send me flailing off to the side.

My vision swims.

No, this isn't how this should go. I'm supposed to defeat him.

…

I begin to black out.

But in that moment, I hear a voice. An unfamiliar voice that seemed a tad nostalgic.

"So this is how Riku Furude spends his final moments? I never picked you for a coward… Seems I was wrong after all."

I force my eyes open –

And standing there before me –

Ah, I've seen this before.

That long, black and out-of-place coat. The black hat that concealed his face. Those eyes – those eyes that shone like the moon.

But the man beneath the haze of his attire – he was no older than I was. His face nowhere near as rough as the man that had once worn those clothes.

"…Yata…garasu…?!"

He locks blades with Mao, evidently strong enough to stand against him without any fear. He rams Mao in the stomach with the hilt of his blade as he seemingly just waves off one of Mao's swings and sends him staggering backward. He follows with several very precise swings of his blade, but Mao blocks it and sees a very wide opening in his stance. But in that moment Mao is jumped by several of the demons from that cave. Yatagarasu backs away in an instant to gain distance – and he stands before me. He stretches his arm towards me. I suddenly find myself with enough strength to stand up using his hand as a crutch.

"Now's not the time to catch up, unfortunately." He says as he draws his katana again.

I turn towards Mao who seemed to be distracted – he was more interested in that demons that populated that cave – he was evidently still searching for whatever it was he'd come here for in the first place.

"You're the one with Kusanagi. But you need to stand back for a bit." He points out the obvious.

I don't respond right away, but he doesn't even wait for me to. He takes off, running straight towards Mao with as much speed as he could manage. I could see his movements much more clearly now – his stance was sloppy. He was going for a very dangerous swing. If he missed he'd get decked in the face, or perhaps stomped on. His sense of balance was poor –

Was this _really _Yatagarasu?

…Ah, that's right.

He was like this back then, wasn't he?

He wasn't refined in the slightest. But his power was so inhuman that it almost didn't matter.

Eventually I realize that this time it _does _matter.

Yatagarasu is unrefined, but not unskilled. He manages to do as well as I was doing, perhaps a bit better. But after awhile, the difference in our mentalities and therefore the difference in our fighting capabilities begins to show. Mao knocks him backward after blocking several of his swings, but Yatagarasu is far too smart to ignore how Mao seems to lose concentration after landing a solid blow. In that moment a haze of white fire is shot in his direction, sending him off balance. But Mao doesn't need his eyes to know where his opponent is standing. But Yatagarasu didn't quite know that.

I move as quickly as I can. Yatagarasu's guard is completely down. He believes he's blinded his enemy. I sheathe Kusanagi and quickly draw it again, creating the shockwave that this time sends Mao flying. But he already slammed Yatagarasu with his demon arm at that point.

I run to his side as fast as possible – he's completely unconscious. I try to get him to wake up –

But suddenly someone approaches me. It isn't Mao, who seemingly has evidently been ambushed by several of the demons from the cave. Instead it's one of them – a demon from the cave. But this one – this one was a woman with light purple hair. She had the horns of the other demons, but otherwise seemed completely human, and…

Her eyes – her eyes took on a red glow. She was clearly inhuman, but…

Her eyes were simply so captivating.

She suddenly speaks. I almost don't even hear her because I'm completely lost in her eyes. I realize that she had first and foremost checked on Yatagarasu, unconscious at my feet.

"He'll be alright." She speaks Japanese extremely fluently. "Right now there's more important things to deal with, right?"

I snap back to reality, nodding my head several times.

"What exactly is he after?" I question her immediately. Good. I'm at least _somewhat _aware of what I'm doing now at least.

"There's no time to explain… But if he can be stopped, I'll tell you everything." She looks at me almost pleadingly.

"…Alright, but what exactly can we do?"

"We seal him – in the cave. That's the best way."

"Sounds like a plan."

With my approval, she runs off into the woods, leaving me in the dust. Okay, so she could run at inhuman speeds. Big deal.

I look towards Mao – he's being beaten back by the demons. I have to help them – if our goal was to lure him into the cave, I'd be able to do that no problem. After all, he wanted me dead first and foremost.

I raise Kusanagi and get his attention. I manage to get myself behind him before he turns and attacks.

"You're more foolish than I thought." He laughs.

"If I'm so foolish then why haven't you beaten me yet?"

He swings his katana in my direction. I take a leap back. I'm only a few feet from the entrance to the cave. If I could just get him inside, he'd be kibble. But in the meantime, I had to figure out how _I'd _get _out _of the cave. Being sealed in the same room as this guy is practically a fate worse than death. I manage to lure him further in, but the further in we go the less chance I have of getting out.

He takes several wild swings, working his massive arm into the combo. He's now far enough from the entrance that whatever method of sealing that demon girl was going to use could be performed without a hitch. Of course that's provided that I _want_ to spend the rest of my life dodging punches like an idiot. I put up a few more signs of a serious offense – but Mao eventually grows wise to my scheme. Of course he's not quite smart enough to know what I was waiting for, but eventually he backs away and stops attacking to assess the situation. Leaving himself wide open, at that.

Yes, he's this much of a dumbass when he _doesn't _have a feral demon controlling his every thought. I was beginning to think of the two as the perfect match for each other. I'd have nightmares if I ever thought about what Onigafuchi would turn into with him at the helm.

I lunge forward and pierce his stomach. He screams and attempts to swat at me with his sword – but I manage to get away fast enough –

I now have my opening. I back away somewhat, but in an instant Mao closes in on me. Right – he has inhuman demon reflexes.

But suddenly more of that white fire spirals towards us. Mao is hit head on and is knocked onto his back.

In an instant Yatagarasu is at my side.

"Go." He speaks somewhat coldly as he stomps his foot on Mao's chest.

I back away somewhat slowly. Right outside there are two demons preparing the seal. I signal for them to wait a moment – Yatagarasu is not leaving the cave. No – it seems that he's not quite done with Mao just yet.

"A beast like you… On your back, you're worthless. Just like the rest of your kind, you youkai scum…" He hisses.

Mao laughs. "Ah... I remember you. The little boy… No, you weren't a little boy… I was going after you… You were so spineless – I couldn't help myself. But I got that little girl instead… Hmm… I suppose her blood was tasty enough –"

Yatagarasu rams the blade of his katana into Mao's throat, shutting him up mid sentence. A garbled laugh escapes his severed windpipe.

"You expect mercy? Because you're in a human's body? No, you're nothing more than a beast… And you'll rot away for the rest of your days in this pit. That's what you deserve." He rips the katana out of Mao's neck and looks down on him.

I could only assume Mao was smiling with that irritating grin. Because in another moment, Yatagarasu proceeds to commit the most brutal act of murder I've ever seen. Mao was essentially immortal in that body, but that didn't mean he was immune to pain.

With each strike of the katana I hear another gut wrenching scream as Mao's damaged throat attempts to repair itself. But to no avail.

Eventually the sound of gut piercing stops. Yatagarasu steps off of the mangled body beneath him. "Two thousand years. It'll take you two thousand years to repair that body in the state you're in." He speaks coldly. "Even then you won't be strong enough to break the seal on this cave."

"I…will…I will haunt this land…And you… forever…!" Mao manages to bellow before his mouth begins to lose the ability longer form words. "I'll torture that bitch…And all her descendents… Forever!"

But with that Yatagarasu arcs his blade one final time. Mao speaks no more. Yet he is still alive.

Yatagarasu leaves the cave, and in the moment he does the demons near the entrance quickly form the seal. Rolling a massive stone in front of the entrance, they effectively seal Mao. The rest of the demons were in the trees, watching with both awe and fear – they most certainly knew who Yatagarasu was, but more importantly there was the state of his katana, drenched from tip to hilt in blood.

I should've known this would happen.

I should've realized –

I was such a fool.

My life was changed when I watched Chinami slip away from me.

But Yatagarasu loved her.

And here he was, almost an entirely different person.

…No, he _was _an entirely different person.

And that was my fault as well.

The woman from before approaches us. Some of the demons around us attempt to make some sort of a move, but she signals for them to back off – evidently she was worth protecting if these somewhat cowardly demons were willing to throws themselves at people who could kill them fairly instantly. And I had a feeling that her looks _didn't _have to do with it.

"Thank you." She seems to direct her gratitude more towards me than towards Yatagarasu. "There's no telling how many lives would have been lost if he'd gone on any longer."

"It's not that big a deal." I try to play it off. But it _was _a big deal. There was no telling what was going to happen now that a man with a decent amount of status had been effectively killed. But more importantly, I'd spared what seemed to be an entire clan of demons.

"Now would you mind telling me…" Yatagarasu began. "…why your clan was stranded out _here_?" He seemed more aware of what was going on than I did – it made sense, after all, considering how he'd just shown up out of the blue. But if he were here then whatever Mao had been after was clearly important.

"I can explain everything, but…" She looks into the trees where the other members of her clan were lying in wait. "Without that cave we no longer have a place to stay. This area is destroyed and the woods are simply not safe enough…" She then turns towards me. The moment our eyes make contact I'm once again put under her spell. And it seemed that she was going to make use of that to ensure that her proposal would end in her favor. Of course I was good enough at this sort of negotiation that I could recognize her intent without any hesitation. Aside from his lack of wit or intelligence, there was a fairly good reason why Mao could never win himself any power in the village – I was simply too smart to leave him any openings. Not that he'd have recognized them in a thousand years anyhow.

Hell no. You might be the best looking woman I've seen in ten years, but you're not getting away with something like this.

"It's not as if I can simply move you to a place of my choosing." I turn her down before she can even ask. It was clear to me that she wanted to relocate her clan to wherever I'd come from. She knew I had some degree of power from how Kimiyoshi addressed me earlier. She also knew that I knew that she knew. If that makes any sense.

"And how so?"

"Our village… Isn't really all that appreciative of demons. I'm sure you're entirely unaware, but about five miles from here there's our village which was subject to a really bad demon invasion a year ago."

"Then what would it take?"

"You can't be willing to go through what it'll take."

"I beg to differ. Name your terms and I will honor them on behalf of my clan."

"Put simply, if your intent is to migrate to our village, you'd have to justify a mass reformation of pretty much everything that our village was built on. Not exactly all that possible, if you ask me."

"Then if I am given the chance to plead my case, I will be able to ensure my clan's safety?"

I gave her a dubious look. There's no way she could be serious. There was no way she couldn't be aware of how hostile humans were towards demons. It was practically in our nature to despise them to the core – but then again, here I was. Perhaps that was why she didn't seem to have any indication of hesitation.

"It's too much of a long shot. If you fail, then you and your entire clan will be executed on the spot. At that point it's out of my hands."

"Then I won't fail."

"You're not getting what I'm-"

"I understand you perfectly. Take me to your village – the rest of my clan will wait along the outskirts. We are not hostile – I will prove it."

I sigh and turn away from her. "…If you're serious, then just listen to me. If you want any chance of success, I suggest you kill your men now."

She grunts. "That isn't a problem… After all, there are no men amongst my clan. Only women and children."

I turn and give her a strange look. She couldn't be telling the truth, could she? But she doesn't offer any further response. She simply starts walking as if she already knows the path to the village. Yatagarasu silently follows her. He doesn't speak to me – not even once. I can't help but feel that he's far more interested in that woman than bridging things with me – I'm not all that surprised, though. After all, I'm the one who's to blame for what happened.

I can't help but wonder if this reunion had a different meaning for him than it did for me. It was highly likely that such was the case, but even then I still found myself wondering exactly what was going through his head.

It wasn't as if he was unaffected by any of it.

He'd been too brutal a short while ago for that to be the case.

He was once quiet and demure. He'd only become friends with me in the first place out of pure coincidence. Because Chinami had been there.

And why did he now wear the garb that his father wore?

Just how much had he changed?

In the end, the answer to that question was _too much_.

* * *

_Onigafuchi, the Following Morning (June 2__nd__)  
__Riku Furude _

It took some serious work, but we managed to find a small area not that far from the village for the woman's clan to hide in for the time being. It was fortunate that our village was built around swampland – there were plenty of places to hide, and luckily one of those places was large enough to fit a sizable number of people – or in this case, demons. I found myself putting a little too much work into making sure that everyone was accounted for – at this point I was being driven by the image of that mother, still burned into my brain. Furthermore, considering how this was a clan of only women and boys barely old enough to be able to speak, I couldn't help but feel as though I had the obligation to treat them like human women and children.

When everything was said and done I had to lead the woman into the village on her own. And at the very moment we enter the village all hell breaks loose. I'm swarmed by all sorts of people, all making the same sort of outburst. It would seem that the very sudden break in what had become routine had hit everyone a little hard – especially considering what had happened.

It also didn't help that I was leading someone who was clearly not human into the village. Of course, luckily enough, Yatagarasu proves true to the radical change his personality had taken and manages to ward most of them off. But I manage to piece together the story as the public knew it.

Kimiyoshi had returned much earlier than we had and had more or less told the village elders a fairly convincing story. According to him, Mao was attacked by a powerful demon and was killed in battle. I sent him back to deliver that message to the elders and to tell them that I would not return until the situation was resolved. I could only hope that I'd be able to play along with the tale he'd woven in place of the truth – and somehow break the will of Eingyi Sonozaki, Mao's seventy-year-old father, when it came time to barter for the woman's clan.

And speaking of that woman, she finally seemed to understand what was going on. She calls out to me after I shoo off more frightened commoners.

"It would seem that my demands will cause more trouble around here than they ought to." She speaks somewhat abruptly. No shit. Thanks for letting me know. But at least she's figured out what I meant earlier.

"You see, the man who was possessed – his father is actually the most respected amongst the village elders."

"Elders?"

"They're basically a group that gives their approval on huge decisions. I might have the most power, but I'm not exactly the wisest egg – but the five guys that make up the village elders supposedly are. And for the record, this man lost his wife in a demon invasion – among other things."

"Ah… I see." She seems somewhat downcast. She must've figured it out. Why would a man who lost almost everything to a pack of demons allow a clan of them to live right under his nose? Such a thing would be almost entirely impossible. Hell would have to freeze over first. That is, unless she made enough of a case. But considering how his son was just murdered – by a demon of all things – for such an argument to hold any water, there'd need to be some kind of a miracle.

Yatagarasu suddenly taps my shoulder. "They've just called a meeting. Looks like they've already noticed what's going on here."

"You don't think they've spotted where we hid the others, do you?" She suddenly starts to panic, although somewhat more quietly than I've seen certain other people – namely me – panic.

"Not possible. I doubt anyone's left the village with what's been going on. But word about _you _probably spread like wildfire the second we stepped in." I try to reassure her that her clan was safe for the moment. I then turn towards Yatagarasu. "We should be quick about this. The less time that old man has to mourn the better chance we have of making this work out."

He sighs, somewhat uncharacteristically. "You're really getting into this, aren't you?"

"What, you expect me to just leave them to die?"

"You seemed fine with that idea before." He points out something I'd been trying to shut out of my head for awhile. He then gestures towards Kusanagi. "How many demons have you taken with that blade?"

"I get it." I mumble. "This is just different."

He turns away from me. He chuckles slightly. "I still just don't get you." With that, he walks off in the direction of the shrine, which still serves as the meeting hall for the village elders to gather. "Let's not waste any more time. I've got my business here too, you know."

With that I start to follow him, but the woman suddenly grabs my arm.

"Wait a moment…"

I turn to face her. Her face is still somewhat downcast.

"I have to thank you again… This is all so unnecessary and fruitless, yet here you are."

"Yet here I am…" I sigh.

She suddenly makes eye contact with me again. "I've neglected to properly introduce myself. My name is Hainiryun Leasomuru Jieda. I will inherit leadership of my clan upon my mother's passing."

"Haini…What now?"

She frowns. "Furude-sama, it would be appreciated if you could say my name correctly." Oh, so she already has me figured out, huh?

But really – Hainiryun Something-Or-Other? You'd only be fine with having a name like that if you enjoyed screwing with people who can't say it right…

…Ah, I see. She really _was _a demon after all…! She tricked me! I'd have to find some way to get back at her for this…

"T-That aside… Well, I don't think I have to introduce myself at this point." She shakes her head in confirmation. "B-But… I guess I get to inherit my shrine when my uncle finally croaks." I speak with a sigh. "Oh, and by the way – you're lucky you can speak our language. Otherwise you'd be in big trouble."

"Well, there's a story behind that…" She says almost with a smile. "But we have more important things to do right now, correct?"

"Ah, right…" I sigh. I'm not looking forward to seeing my uncle again, although I'm actually less excited to have to talk Eingyi into accepting this ludicrous proposal.

We head towards the shrine without exchanging any more words. It was actually relatively peaceful on the way there. I wasn't being badgered by anyone at that point – but sure enough, the moment I slide open the door to the shrine's gathering hall, the entire hall in question erupts into chaos.

I peer into the room – the usual people are gathered around the room, all complaining to me at the same time. I take one step into the building before shaking my head and backing out. I sigh with frustration, slamming the door shut without so much as a single word to any of those inside.

Hainiryun laughs for the first time. I turn to face her – she's laughing like a perfectly normal woman. She'd been unnaturally tense up until just a moment ago – but now she's more human than she's ever seemed before. She was relaxing, which would certainly help given what she was about to go through.

Once again I'm completely bewildered. I just can't understand how a demon like her could possibly exist.

There's nothing inhuman about the way she's laughing right now. If not for the horns, there would be no way to tell the difference between her and a human woman. If this persisted, I'd forget that she's a demon altogether.

From the short amount of time I've known her, she's displayed more integrity and assertion that I have my entire life. She's most certainly smart and is looked up to by many around her. She isn't afraid of humans, but she doesn't hate them either. She's too intelligent to move purely off of instinct. She likely had better leadership qualities than I had.

Perhaps she and her clan were different. Perhaps they weren't.

But there had to be value in a life such as hers – value greater than that in my own.

And so I believe that I'm ready to defend her side of things.

"Let's try that again, shall we?" I sigh as I open the door again. The entire hall is silent. "Ah, much better." I let my irritation seem apparent – I was mostly directing the spite towards my uncle, who sat on the far end of the room directly across from where I was standing when I walked in.

The moment Hainiryun walks into the room, the sound resumes, although much softer.

"I see that the rumors are true." My uncle makes it clear that he's not happy to see me alive. He tries to pretend that I'm _not _the only shot his daughter has getting married to preserve his own ego, although it seems more counterintuitive than anything else. "One mad dog leaves the village and you bring another one here in its place?" His joke wasn't met with any laughter – Mao was considered the mad dog of the village by quite a few people, although right now wasn't the time, and most _certainly _not the place for that sort of jab. The only lighting in the room came from the candles on the walls and so I couldn't quite see him, but I knew that Eingyi was glaring daggers at him right now.

"It seems your eyesight's gone as bad as that joke." I gesture towards Hainiryun. "Look again – or has that unsightly pig you have the honor of calling your daughter made it impossible for you to recall what a young woman is _supposed _to look like?" Now _that _joke was met with laughter. As usual, my uncle was fuming – _no one _particularly cared for my uncle, especially with how utterly elitist he became once he took the position of Shrine Priest. A position that, mind you, lost all the power that it once had.

"Could we forgo the usual banter today, Furude-sama?" I hear a rather dull yet loud voice ring out from the side. The entire room is silenced –

I suddenly clam up. Even without decent lighting I can see her clearly, sitting off to the side without anyone around her. She was wearing her typical black kimono with one of her sleeves much shorter than the other. I try not to make eye contact, but part of me wants to see if there was even the slightest change in her – if caused by my sudden disappearance or not. I wanted to know if there was at least something in her eyes besides that gaze of despair, glazed over by years of depression and failed attempts at coping. But there was none to be found.

I almost express my disappointment, but I remember where I am. "O-Oh… Okazaki-san. I was… unaware that you had attended today's meeting."

"Attendance was mandatory. Don't think anything of it."

"R-Right…" Despite being the only representative of the Okazaki family, she was generally pardoned of attending most meetings. This one was evidently mandatory for all families in the village.

In the end, you might be curious – even if it was traumatizing, she only lost her arm. Why did she change so radically?

In truth, Chinami lost _much _more than her arm that day. I was only a child, so I could never truly understand. She was attacked by a demon. In most cases, if a human sustains a wound made from demon fangs, they suffer from delusions and excruciating pain for a short period of time. But when a human that is either too young or weak enough sustains a physical wound from a demon, especially one as rabid as the Garm that had attacked her that day, the delusions and excruciating pain amount to pricks on the finger in comparison to what one experiences –

Nightmares come to life. Enough mental torture to make you forget everything you know. Long term hallucinatory side effects. All inflicted on Chinami at the ripe age of eleven. The mere idea of that experience even turned Mao mellow – despite his nature he never so much as went anywhere near Chinami.

"There's more than enough speculation going around this room to make me want to throw up. Let's hear the facts, shall we?" She continues before falling silent. It was at moments like these when Chinami became the most powerful person in the village. Everyone listened to her purely out of respect – but more importantly, Chinami was filled with the cynicism of a demon. Cynicism that usually let her make an almost completely objective decision – that in many cases made her word law amongst the elders.

But she didn't care enough to abuse it. She saw no meaning doing so – just as she saw no meaning in anything else around her.

I'd be trying to convince the elders to allow Hainiryun's clan passage into the village. But in reality, I'd only be trying to convince _her_.

I then make my attempt to explain Hainiryun's circumstances. I was fortunately able to say her name correctly on top of everything else. I do my best to build a story around what Kimiyoshi had spread to the masses, and in the end the elders seemed to buy it. So now a common order of events was established. Now came the actual battle.

"So this woman – this demon, rather – wishes to relocate her clan to _this village_." My uncle reconfirms the circumstances. "And we're all sitting here, listening like we have a care in the world."

"I already told you –"

"What you've told us and what is true are two very different things." Eingyi finally speaks. "At the very least, Kimiyoshi-san's account and yours coincide… However, why this clan must migrate to Onigafuchi of all places remains to be seen."

"Allow me to speak, then." Hainiryun breaks her silence. The elders begin to talk amongst themselves while Chinami simply studies her with her eyes.

"A little soon, but eh, we can manage." I whisper to her as she moves from her position behind me to the center of the room, kneeling in perfect seiza.

"On behalf of my clan and its ill mistress, I, Hainiryun Leasomuru Jieda, am eternally grateful for the respect and hospitality I have been given thus far. If not for the actions of your leader, I would most certainly be dead by now."

"Which poses another problem –" My uncle speaks up, but Chinami interrupts him.

"Let her speak."

With that, he falls silent and Hainiryun continues.

"My clan has existed alongside humans for as long as three centuries. Long before the ritual in the capitol, my clan has served alongside both the Yatagarasu and the Sagiri towards maintaining our beloved country. With the passage of time we have been forced to retreat into hiding, and each time we have done so we have been targeted by creatures such as the one that attacked us yesterday evening. We are a nomadic people, but we can no longer live as such a people."

"So your plan was to relocate your clan to this village?" Eingyi is responded to with a nod. "And why, might I ask, would we be inclined to agree to your request? You can see that our village is large enough – a mass immigration will only make things more complicated."

"The only thing I can offer in exchange is protection from demons that would seek to harm this village."

"I'm not sure if you're aware or not, but –" My uncle is once again cut off by Chinami.

"This village houses a very particular sword. A sword that's perfectly capable of dealing with any demon-related problems."

"But it's just one sword." I speak up. "If not for the magic this demon clan is capable of, I'd likely have been killed outright by the demon that attacked us."

"And you're certain of that?" She continues. She was on the offense now. But luckily I had a card that I could play in my favor.

"I was forced to let them seal the demon into the mountainside. It would still be running around rampant otherwise. Every year these demons become stronger. You all have to accept it – at this point another invasion's inevitable. We lost enough people to the demons during that assault, regardless of this blade. If protection is what's being offered here there's no reason why we should turn them down. We house them here in exchange for their help – they aren't like other demons. They aren't as spontaneous and they won't turn against us for no reason. Let's not make a mistake here – after all, none of us ever though that a demon could kill Sonozaki-san, right?"

"Despite that, there isn't much sense to be made here… But in the end I don't exactly have the right to determine that." With a shrug, Chinami leans back and lets everything else take off from there. She'd effectively resigned – now it was up to the elders to make their decision.

Usually, the elders would be inclined to side with her. But this time, they seem to more readily accept my argument now that Mao's fate was brought into the picture. It was mostly true as well – it was entirely true if you considered Mao's death being at the hands of the demon. This was the perfect time to play this card – none of them, especially not Eingyi, had any time to mourn Mao's death whatsoever. It was an open wound – and rubbing salt in that wound made it possible to win their favor.

"Everything he said is true." Hainiryun continues. "My clan is capable of contributing to this village – I'd never have come here in the first place if this was not the case."

"Tell me one thing." Eingyi finally speaks up. "You claim that your clan serves a particular purpose. You were tasked in the same vein as the Yatagarasu and the Sagiri. Can you show proof of this?"

Her face falls. "It is possible, but… I'm afraid I cannot."

The elders talk amongst themselves again.

"You wish for us to believe you. You have the proof that validates your story. Yet you refuse to show it to us? I apologize, but I cannot accept such a story." Eingyi resigns.

"This is all simply a trick – you were fortunate that our greatest fool was the one to stumble upon you. But now you face our judgment." My uncle seems to take pride in both insulting me and getting out a full sentence at the same time.

This looked fairly bad. Honestly, I was almost starting to doubt Hainiryun myself – but I still wanted to believe her.

"That won't be necessary." A voice rings out from the far corner of the room. I suddenly remember – Yatagarasu had entered the hall before we did. Until now I'd completely forgotten that he was here. But he steps out from within the darkness and proceeds towards the center of the room.

"And you are…?" My uncle is the only one in the room that evidently doesn't recognize him based off of the attire alone.

"Yatagarasu of the Distant Past. I'll vouch for her – everything she said, too."

"What are you saying?!" My uncle shouts.

"You _can't _be serious. You should all be aware of the deal that was made in this very room…" He trails off, gesturing towards me. "The deal made on that sword."

"By Kusanagi, we're all bound to obey the whims of Amaterasu. That includes her subordinates." I remind everyone in the room.

"That blade may have brought us fortune – but who is to say that _you _are the one to decide what is fact and was is not?" Eingyi questions. The rest of the room, save for Chinami who has been completely silent, concurs with him. It would seem that they all forgot the tenants of the agreement.

"You are to accept the word of the Yatagarasu as undeniable fact. That's part of the deal." Yatagarasu sighs.

"We have devoted as much tithe as was requested. But even then tragedy such as this is allowed to befall our village. For all intents and purposes, _you _have broken your agreement."

The room goes into an uproar.

"_Enough!_" Yatagarasu shouts at the top of his lungs, silencing the entire room. "My father was a fool, but he was firm upon the tenants of our bargain. Loyalty to the Mother of Us All in exchange for the Demon Slayer. That was the arrangement… If you choose to void that agreement, and refuse to acknowledge me, then I will no longer be obligated to acknowledge Onigafuchi as the rightful owners of Kusanagi."

I was bewildered. Ten years ago I _never _would have pictured Yatagarasu bringing an angry mob to its knees.

That aside, it all made sense – if the elders didn't accept Hainiryun's story and promises as absolute fact, they would be voiding the agreement with the Yatagarasu and Kusanagi would be relieved from the village. It might not have been apparent to all of them quite just yet, but if that were to happen, then Onigafuchi would be completely defenseless – at this point, the elders had to either allow Hainiryun's clan safe passage into the village or face annihilation from the demons that would doubtlessly strike again.

"…Very well." Eingyi speaks. "…We have no choice but to accept this testimony as fact… But when the time comes, and your clan of demons fails to protect us, you will all be exiled to the north."

Hainiryun nods her head. "I understand. I will ensure that such will not be the case."

"…Kimiyoshi." My uncle speaks up. Kimiyoshi stands in attention almost instantly. "Inform the builders – they must construct temporary lodgings to fit fifty villagers. Make it clear that all who attempt to interfere with them or our soon to arrive guests will be stoned." Kimiyoshi nods his head and heads out of the hall without a word. "…Very well, this meeting is adjourned. We shall see where this path leads us."

The hall begins to empty out immediately. Yatagarasu turns away and begins to head towards the exit himself. "We're even now." He speaks to Hainiryun.

"I cannot express my gratitude… Thank you, Yatagarasu-sama." She thanks him humbly. So they _did _know each other. And given how he'd been thanked, it would seem that Yatagarasu didn't turn into the type who usually repays his debts.

"Believe it or not, I still have a job to do." With that, he walks past her and head straight for the doorway.

"After everything's settled down, we'll get things out of the way." He whispers to me as he walks by. He vanishes without another word.

I turn to follow him, but much like before Hainiryun grabs my arm.

"I have to thank you again… I'm not sure how that would've gone if you hadn't helped me." She smiles at me warmly. "I'll have to find some way to repay you."

I shrug my shoulders. "Well, I just hope you realize I'm not going to be calling you _Hainiryun Leasomuru Jieda _for the next fifty years."

She finds it amusing, her smile slightly wider. "Ah, right. I suggest you come up with a suitable replacement."

I look over her once more – the way she is right now, I'm not sure what part of her is supposed to be demonic. Aside from the horns, of course. "I'll think it over… Right now, you should get back to the others and let them know what's going on."

She nods her head and leaves the hall without another word. I sigh – it would seem that things were going to work out for the time being, but that likely wouldn't be the case for much longer. There was no doubt in my mind that the villagers would react poorly to this decision – Hainiryun's clan needed to prove their worth as fast as possible.

I look around for Chinami, but she's already long gone. I leave the hall myself – I honestly wanted to be anywhere else at that moment.

I end up following Hainiryun to the section of swamp where the rest of her clan was hiding. It wasn't all that far away, so I could pop back into the village without much issue. When I find them, Hainiryun is tending to an elderly woman who very much appeared to be her mother. She was the only demon among them aside from Hainiryun to have purple hair.

Hainiryun notices me and pulls me over before briefly introducing me to the woman – it would seem that the woman could understand her even though she was speaking my language and not the demon language. I would later learn that her entire clan was perfectly fluent in human languages. It seemed far too convenient, but considering how they were evidently employed in the same line of work as Yatagarasu was, it made sense.

She smiles at me. "Thank you… For everything." She says in a weak voice. "Rest assured… Our clan will serve yours from now on."

"That really won't be necessary."

"Such is the pride of our clan – we keep our debts. No matter how large they may be. It's our nomadic way of life…" She coughs. "But I suppose that even that is coming to an end now…" She turns towards Hainiryun. "…I doubt I'll survive the evening. I hope everything is in order."

She nods her head in response while I cut in. "Wait, is something –"

"Worry not, child of man… I thought you knew by now – demons can die of old age as well… Now, run along. I must rest."

"Take care." Hainiryun bids the woman farewell and leads me away from her. Several of the other clan members gather around her as she does so.

"We have last rites for our clan mother… We'll just be in the way. I've already had the eldest sort out everyone. They're going to be ready to move whenever."

"And they're all protected?"

"Of course. We can rest assured."

I sigh before I suddenly remember what I was going to ask her. "Um… Was that your mother?"

She shakes her head. "No, but she's the closest thing I've ever had to one… I don't have a mother."

"Oh, I see…" So she knew nothing of her birth mother. Although the way she'd said that – it seemed like she was implying something else, but I chose to disregard it. "…It's alright if you want to go back and mourn. It's not a big deal if you don't return with me."

She shakes her head. "We've important things to discuss. But aside from that, dying is a blessing for nomads like us. It's a sign that we've done what we were meant to do. It's a bit different from how humans treat death."

"Ah, I see… Oh, and I'm not sure if I should be asking this, but…"

She smiles. "Go ahead."

"I know you all can speak my language, but you seem… A bit more… I don't know, maybe more knowledgeable about my culture than the others seem to."

"When I was much younger we were hiding in the canals beneath the capitol. I picked up everything from then."

"In the canals? For how long?"

"Long enough."

"That just isn't right…"

She laughs slightly. I give her a questioning look.

"It's funny, I suppose. You're a bit too kind to be human."

Too kind to be human? What was that supposed to mean?

I decide to disregard it. We head back to the village mostly in silence. I occasionally ask her a question about her past – she doesn't give me any straight answers, but at least I learn a bit more about her in the process.

I wasn't sure where this connection I'd made with her was going to take me –

But I could at least be confident that it wouldn't lead me somewhere bad.

…Heh.

Wishful thinking, huh?

* * *

_Furude Shrine, Later That Evening  
__Riku Furude _

Hainiryun pays her respects to Amaterasu almost as soon as we return to the shrine. It seemed that she was trying to repay Yatagarasu for his stunt earlier in every indirect way possible. I wait outside for her to finish, while hoping that Yatagarasu will show himself now that the village has mostly shut down for the evening.

Much to my surprise, he does. He appears near the edge of the woods behind the shrine little more than twenty minutes after I started waiting for him.

"Where were you?" I ask him casually, although I get a far too serious answer.

"You pulled many workers from their hunting posts. I killed enough game to last you all through the next week. I've got to repair my public image somehow if I'm sticking around."

"So you _are _going to stay here?" I was almost completely shocked – I didn't expect Yatagarasu to _want _to live in Onigafuchi again. Perhaps I'd blown things out of proportion?

"I have to. After all, I've got a job to do."

"Does that have something to do with Hainiryun?"

"Isn't that obvious?" He grunts, somewhat amused. "What, you thought I came back here to patch things up?"

"Would've been a nice thought."

He shrugs his shoulders. "I thought that was _your _job."

My face falls. Shit – he's right about that. "…I guess it is."

He turns away from me. "Just be aware – if you try to apologize for what happened, I'll kill you where you stand."

"A-Alright…Damn, what the hell's gotten into you?"

"You might've been a bit too wrapped up in gushing over your new woman to pay attention –"

"Hey, don't start with that, alright? I know – I know it was hard to have to face that demon again, but –"

"It wasn't the demon that was the problem."

"Huh?"

"It wasn't even seeing you. I guess it wasn't even seeing her, even."

I try to rack my brain for some sort of solution. If not either of us –

It clicks.

"Does it have to do with your father?"

"Bingo." I wasn't familiar with the phrase he'd used, but evidently I was right. "You know, I'm not holding it against you. But that sword? It was supposed to be mine."

"…!"

"Kusanagi was my birthright. It was once my father's, and it should have been passed to me. Of course that fool gave it away to a human. Because I was too weak." He then turns to face me. "Do I look weak to you now?"

"…No, of course not."

He sighs. "I guess there was no point in asking."

"…Look, if it means that much to you, I can…"

I trail off as he gives me a look of disbelief. He then gives a rather wry grin – it wasn't exactly a smile, but it was better than that scowl that seemed plastered to his face. "I'm never going to understand you humans no matter how hard I try, am I?" He then turns away. "My business here isn't personal. I'm going to try not to make it personal, so I'll let _her _tell you the rest. You get it?"

"Alright… Don't stress yourself out."

He gives a lazy sort of wave as he walks off into the night. Lord knows where he was going. But I had more relevant things to deal with right now. I head into the shrine where Hainiryun is evidently done paying her respects.

"Kept you waiting?" She shakes her head in response.

"I'd advise that you lock the door – "

I disregard her and pull up the hidden panel that leads to our hidden cellar. "We can talk about whatever you want to down there."

Somewhat surprised, she follows me to the lower level of the shrine – beneath the shrine was a cellar that had serve as my training quarters for the last ten years. I couldn't swing Kusanagi about up above, after all – I'd probably have killed more humans than demons in my earlier years that way.

"I see… This is convenient." She's somewhat impressed. "This will do."

"Have a seat." I gesture towards the small table that had been set up in the event that I wanted to eat anything. Chiyo-san, bless her soul, would make her way down here in the earliest hours of the morning to leave me food.

Hainiryun sits and I accompany her – we decide to get right down to business… Get your mind out of the gutter – there's plenty of time for that sort of thing later. Believe me.

"As I'm sure you're aware by now, there was a very particular reason why your friend was possessed by a youkai of that caliber and led to our hiding place."

"Probably the same reason why you have to keep moving as much as you do."

"Well, there's certainly truth to that, but…"

"Look – I know you're only nomads because you're targets. I know that the increased demon activity in this area is partially due to your clan and whatever it is you're doing. I know that this village is in serious danger now for housing you – but it's not like I'm going to kick you out after what happened."

She smiles somewhat softly, closing her eyes for a moment. "You're really too kind."

"All I want to know is what it is that you're doing. And why no one else can know about it. And, while you're at it, why _I'm _qualified to know."

"As for your last inquiry – in all honesty, you shouldn't know. No human should truly be able to grasp our agenda. But there were no humans to our knowledge who would accept demons the way you have. Yatagarasu-sama seems to trust you as well – that's why I'm going to go through with this."

"I see… Well, if Yatagarasu thinks it's a good idea, it probably is."

She then begins her story. "My clan was formed thousands of years ago. In all truth, we are no different from normal demons in any other way aside from our intellect – that is, excluding myself."

"So you _are _different. I had a feeling."

"It's not the way you seem to think."

"Do tell…" I was almost afraid of what I was going to hear.

"…I told you that I grew up amongst the streets of the capitol before. That actually wasn't true."

"…Okay. And…"

"The reality is far different – if I told you that I have been alive for longer than anyone else currently on this earth, yet have no recollection of when I was born or who I when I was the equivalent of a child, would you believe me?"

"…Come again?"

"I'm not repeating that." She sighs with a wry smile.

"Wait, as in… Alive before _anyone_?"

"All I can recall was my waking, somewhere in a land far to the east. I wandered the earth for many years alone before I was taken in by my clan after I crossed the sea… And here I am. The woman who took on the role of my mother? She was an infant when I first stumbled across my clan."

"That's…"

"Unbelievable. I know, but I can only hope you understand that –"

"Oh, I believe you. After all, I have Yatagarasu's truth to back you up."

She smiles somewhat sadly. "So you don't trust me?"

"You just admitted only a moment ago that you lied to me earlier today." I smile at her.

She was actually caught off guard by that. She laughs. "Hm… I suppose that's true. But I can't stress enough – "

"I know. You couldn't risk it. Because you don't want anyone else to know… Not even the members of your clan."

"Yes… That's about right. But there's one other detail about my reawakening I haven't discussed… It's of the upmost importance that I do."

"Let's hear it." I was being far too understanding for my own good today.

"When I woke in the far east land, I awoke with something in my hands – something that I learned was most certainly not of this world." She takes a deep breath. "I want to you reach into my chest."

I blink several times. Well now – I wasn't expecting _that_.

She suddenly realizes what she had said. "I-I mean, literally reach into my chest. It'll make sense once you do it…" I realize that she was actually getting embarrassed over that – she's not human, and I'm beginning to wonder if she's a demon now, too. It's actually, really, _really _funny.

I do as she asks. I reach towards her chest – and the moment I should make contact, my hand sinks through her altogether. My hand seems to wrap around something warm – something almost burning. I pull my hand out and –

In my open hand is what seems to be a crystalline object. It has the properties of a block of ice, yet it burns like an open flame. Then it slowly levitates into the air, hovering slightly above my hand. The more I stare at it, the more and more a strange feeling builds up inside me. My senses were heightened and my breath was slightly faster. It was as if I were afraid. But at the same time, I was in awe. I couldn't describe the feeling with any one word. I can almost feel my eyes start to glaze over as I'm lost in the glow of the crystal.

"Don't stare at it too much. A man was once so captivated by its glow that he went mad."

"A-Ah, right…" I look away, blinking my eyes several times. It's a sensation similar to staring at a light for too long. I certainly didn't want to go crazy – but even for the short amount of time I'd stared at it I had already started to feel myself slip away.

Hainiryun moves it closer to her. It floats slightly above her chest. I suddenly remember that I'd literally just pulled it out of her – how such a thing was possible was far beyond me.

"I know not where it came from. But I have learned what it is… Isn't it beautiful?"

It was most certainly not anything of this world – it seemed to defy too many laws of what I thought could be possible.

"What is it?"

"This is the Frozen Flame."

"The Frozen Flame…?" I start to stare once more.

That name certainly fit it – a frozen fixture, burning like a flame. A flame so magnificent that could drive men insane. And Hainiryun had woken up with this frozen flame. No explanation, no reason. She simply had it the moment she woke. This flame was likely the source of Hainiryun's condition, what I was beginning to believe equated to immortality.

I could barely wrap my mind around the existence of such a thing.

"The Frozen Flame is the driving force that shapes the universe. It may have a will of its own, or it might not – but it is responsible for the creation of everything."

"Everything? You mean the earth? The stars – everything?"

"Right… There's much more to this world than just the earth… That much I know. The sun, the moon – they're just products of it all."

"And this tiny flame…"

"This tiny flame created everything. It is the spark that created time and space. Everything around us, you and me – everything is a product of this flame."

"And here it is…"

"Here it is."

"But…why?"

"I don't know… I simply awoke with this in my possession."

"But who on this earth could have known about it?"

"Who else but the gods that formed the land beneath our feet?"

"I see… So your clan was tasked with the purpose of guarding the Frozen Flame."

"Correct."

"But why do other demons want it so badly?" I force myself to make eye contact with her to take my mind off the flame.

"The flame is still extraordinarily powerful. Every life that is born, every cause and every effect for every action conceived by every though or every instinct is determined by the flame… The true power of the Frozen Flame is an element of every moment of our lives."

"Every moment, huh…?"

"And so if the flame were to fall into the wrong hands…"

"Everything could come to an end, right?"

"Correct… I know it's hard to understand, but humans aren't supposed to be able to conceive such ideas in the first place… But ironically enough, the power of the flame has been known to humanity for quite some time."

"Really…? How so?"

"The Frozen Flame in itself is a celestial body that no human has ever ascertained before, but the governing power it has over our reality is commonly referred to in human philosophy as fate."

"Fate…" Fate. The concept of destiny. The idea that everything happens for a reason and that one's path in life is ultimately final, regardless of the choices that they make. The idea was somewhat flimsy – every action does have an equal and opposite reaction, and in the end one will eventually reach an end, but whether or not that specific end was determined from them from the moment of birth remains to be seen.

But The Frozen Flame – the Frozen Flame was responsible for that very foundation. The concept of cause and effect. The very foundation of that which makes up everything – that was the Frozen Flame. And it was floating in the air, less than a foot away from me.

I had no right to behold such a flame. It was so far beyond me that the fact that I had beheld it at all was nothing short of a miracle.

Or perhaps the Frozen Flame wished for me to behold it? Perhaps I was fated to witness the flame? Perhaps all of the events up until now were as the flame wished them to be?

My eyes drift towards the flame as I try to comprehend it. But it was impossible. Its entirety, down to its physical form, was simply impossible.

…No. I had to stop thinking. I'd go mad. I look away. Hainiryun notices my inner struggle and shifts the flame back to her chest. It disappears into her, as mysteriously as it had appeared.

"So you understand now? This flame must be protected at all costs. As long as I live, I have to safeguard it."

"Yeah… It's not like this can just be left unattended. But for now you should be safe here."

"I know… I have you to thank for that." She smiles sincerely.

With that, our private meeting was over.

I went to sleep that night, unsure of what I had seen. Of what lied ahead. I'd never been so unsure in my life – not since that moment ten years ago.

I'd have to protect Hainiryun with my life.

But did I have the capacity to do such a thing?

To look after something like the Frozen Flame?

* * *

_Onigafuchi, Three Weeks Later (June 23__rd__)  
__Riku Furude _

And so time passed. And as time passed, the village began to gradually change, day by day.

Hainiryun's clan, officially named the Jieda Clan for convenience, settled into the four buildings that made up their current lodgings. The deal basically came down to how well they could perform in our next mass encounter with demons. If they succeeded, those four buildings would be housing four families, not the entire clan. If they failed, the buildings would be demolished without delay. None of them seemed particularly threatened.

The villagers actually took a certain shine to the Jieda – none of them were particularly inclined to interact with them in any way until one of the women saved a small child that had fallen into the river. From that point, the social side of things seemed to slowly take care of itself. It was rather fortunate that things worked out that way.

Only two weeks after everything began to settle down did we see the first signs of the gravity of our decision. Out of the blue, we receive a declaration of war – not from a nearby province, a neighboring village, or any sort of political power.

Instead it was from Ippon Datara – the deity of the Northern People, evidently having migrated to our swampland almost a full decade ago. He claims to be the source of demonic activity in our area and demands that we either turn over 'the flame' or suffer the consequences of 'defying a god.' It's needless to say that we did not take to such a declaration lightly – I end up sending one back In the form of the messenger demon's head on a pike. I wasn't all that shocked to find a fully mobilized army at least seven hundred strong gathering near the outer edges of our swampland territory later that evening. The villagers are unsure of walking into another massacre, but I use their slowly forming bond with the Jieda to my advantage and convince them to take to the streets in defense.

The Jieda Clan is ready to defend the village no more than fifty minutes later. My uncle was almost too excited to be able to kick them out of the village once their battle plan fell through – but he was excited enough that he was deemed unfit to be involved in the battle and the equivalent of a commander position was passed over to me. I took the opportunity to have him locked in the Furude Shrine cellar until further notice.

In the end the entire village is involved to some degree. Our usual fighters would take to the frontlines while I would lead them from behind – it was determined beforehand that with the Jieda diviners doing their job there would be no need for me to lead the first wave into the battle myself – but more importantly, with the diviners doing their job the fight would never have to be taken to the village this time around. Hainiryun was more or less charged with coordinating the diviners, while Yatagarasu more or less swore to the duty of taking out Ippon Datara himself. We both knew that when the time came things would play out in ways less favorable to the plan he came up with, but he was confident enough in his fighting ability. I was as well, although I couldn't help but show some concern at the idea of letting him fight all on his own.

It takes roughly twenty-four hours for the demon's small battalion to form up – there wasn't any sign of movement until the night of the second day, long after Hainiryun had confirmed exactly how and when they were going to attack. We were prepared long enough in advance that I was somewhat optimistic about the results.

Close to midnight, the first signs of movement from the demon forces are seen.

And so our battle begins.

The Jieda Clan was more than well prepared for a large scale battle – there was no way the demons would break their barriers or so much as scratch them. They had a disadvantage – Onigafuchi was designed to protect the humans within from the outside world – not the other way around. With the terrain advantage, the Jieda managed to repel most if not all of the demons. Their magic was more than sufficient enough to blow away most of the demons in much more effective ways than Kusanagi ever could. There would be a uniquely small number of casualties in this battle – that would be all the Jieda needed to prove themselves.

Ippon Datara came into view towards what I believed was the end of the battle. He was much taller than any of us – he was almost a giant by human standards. He was physically strong looking and seemed human in virtually every way but the third eye beneath his left eye. His right arm was seemingly missing, replaced with what seemed to be at least twelve different blades, welded together and then somehow melded to his arm.

"I'd say now's the time." Yatagarasu taps me on the shoulder. "We finish him off, the rest will scatter."

"I'm not too sure… He's the reason why this area became so populated by the demons – he's a lot strong than we're giving him credit for."

"He's a deity – not a god. Believe it or not there's a decently sized difference."

"You think it's do-able?"

"If you won't I will." He seems to think that saying that was a good note to leave on and he heads for the frontlines.

I sigh before I head off after him. Hainiryun stops me a moment before I leave.

"Swear you'll come back unharmed."

I grunt with amusement. "Now why would I do a thing like that?" She evidently takes that as a satisfactory answer and let's go of my arm.

"Riku Furude, proud ruler of the Onigafuchi Swamp, handing control of his precious warriors to a demon woman. How scandalous…" She smiles somewhat mischievously.

"You're a more natural leader than I'll ever be. It'll work itself out."

She turns away from me as I follow Yatagarasu into the heat of the battle. There won't be any problems with letting her take care of things.

But I'd seen it there. I'd seen it there the moment she tried to crack that joke – she had despair in her eyes. I couldn't quite understand why at the time, but now I _had _to come back unharmed.

By the time I stumble upon him he's already locking blades with Ippon Datara. The two managed to seclude themselves in a clearing away from the rest of the fighting – it seemed that the two were evenly matched, at least at that moment. I decide to wait – attacking him head on instead of taking advantage of the element of surprise is what an amateur does.

The two continue their battle. Neither one of them seems to be tiring in the slightest. Perhaps _this _was what a true battle between superhuman entities was like.

But Yatagarasu continues to display that lack of refining. And I'm not surprised when he slips up for a single moment and ends up with a hole in his side, courtesy of Ippon Datara's sword-arm.

Yatagarasu's flesh wound was too large, even for someone like him. If he continued to square off against Ippon Datara like that, he'd be crushed… I had to do something.

I lunge forward from my hiding place, Kusanagi in hand. Turning this blade on a deity – I wasn't really sure if I'd achieve anything, but even then I still had to save Yatagarasu.

Never again. I swore that I'd never back down ever again.

I manage to stab Ippon Datara roughly in the chest. He backs away, clearly in pain.

"So _that _was your weak spot." Yatagarasu murmurs as he tries to stand. But he's unable to – he's too weak right now. "You got lucky, Furude…" He grunts.

"A human…?" The mad deity studies me carefully. "Ah, I see now… That blade… Of course, it all makes sense." He then creates another massive shuriken out of the wind around him and hurls it towards me. I've seen him do this more than enough times now to avoid it, but he follows up by stomping the ground again, creating a massive shockwave that sends me off balance.

I swing Kusanagi as I tumble, catching him somewhat off guard. It was strange, though – he clearly knew what this sword was. How couldn't he know about its powers?

I regain my balance, but not before he charges at me with his arm made of swords. He grazes me as I make my dodge, but in the next moment he slams the back of my head with his fist. I black out for a moment before I regain my balance and duck. I'm wide open, but with some luck he won't be aiming down with his return attack.

Luckily I was right – I avoid his follow up move by pure chance and swing Kusanagi – I slash a deep gash along his leg.

He finally sees that he's lost this round. He backs away into the woods and out of the clearing. Me, being the fool that I am, follow him without a second thought.

I end up in another clearing, but Ippon Datara is nowhere to be seen. I should've seen this coming, but somehow I managed not to. I frantically look around, trying not to get swept into his sneak attack. But he suddenly appears at my side, and by the time I register his appearance his swords have all already pierced my chest.

I cough blood – too much blood, at that. He laughs at me.

"A mere human… This was the desired outcome."

"Brute strength over swordplay, huh…? You're just another demon." I find it rewarding to taunt a deity a few moments before my death.

"My fighting abilities are identical to that of you humans. I am capable of nothing more than you are… But you are human and I am a god. You are imperfect, while I am perfect. That is our difference."

"Perfect, huh?" I laugh, coughing more blood. "Then why leave yourself open like this?"

In that moment I swing my free arm. I punch him square in the face. He staggers back somewhat, his swords ripping themselves out of my chest in the process. I take my opening and I plunge Kusanagi through his chest. I can feel the blade slip straight through his body and out his back. It was over.

His eyes widen. He's in a state of disbelief – I am as well, although not for the same reasons.

"Bastard human… This means…"

"War. Yeah, I get it…" I pull Kusanagi out of him as my body finally gives way. Ippon Datara explodes in a burst of light, but I am unharmed. "You can send whoever the hell you want my way… the result will be the same every time."

I fall backward, unable to stand. Kusanagi falls to my side and I hit the ground with a thud.

And so I lie there, staring at the moon in the sky above me. I can't move a bone in my body right now – I feel like I'm going to die any moment now. And so I continue to stare at the sky.

I wonder – I she looking up at the moon right now?

Hah, like hell she was. She was probably searching the woods for me right now.

But at least we'd won. At least the flame was safe…

…What the hell am I saying?

I was never protecting the flame.

That was never what this was about.

It was… Hani..Ryun…

…Hanyuu.

It was always Hanyuu…

I was only ever protecting her.

Because I'd fallen in love with her. Almost immediately at that.

…I don't want to die.

I'm going to live.

I'm going to go back home.

I'm going to call her 'Hanyuu'. I'm going to call her by that name. My name for her.

And I…

My vision starts to fade. But I keep staring at the moon.

My fate is already certain. I will either die or live.

But I want to live.

Does that desire have value?

Or am I just a passing fancy of the Frozen Flame?

Perhaps both were true.

I try to move my body. But the gash in my chest causes too much pain. I can't move.

But at least there were no other casualties. It was just me… The clan would be safe. _She'd _be safe.

I can die happy, at least that way…

…

…No.

That isn't true.

I want to go to her.

No matter what she is, Hanyuu is my ideal woman.

I want to live. With her.

I won't die.

Not until she can smile like Chinami used to.

Not until I could purge the despair from her eyes.

I won't die.

Not here.

Not like this…

My vision is so blurry I can no longer make out the moon.

I feel myself slowly drift away…

But at what I believe to be the very last moment, I'm pulled out of it.

A few meters from my face, cradling my head in her arms, was her. I'm not sure when she found me. She could've been there the entire time for all I know.

She was here. I could feel my consciousness come into focus.

Perhaps it was the Frozen Flame deep within her.

Perhaps it had taken pity on me.

"Hanyuu…" I murmur.

My eyes focus. I can see her face – that despair is still there, now stronger than ever. She was afraid. But she couldn't cry – she wasn't human enough to cry. Death was different from her perspective than it was from mine. If I were to die it would have been to protect the flame.

That was the case with her clan-mother.

…So then…

Why?

Why is her face stricken with tears?

"…You settled on a name, I see… Hanyuu sounds nice." She whispers.

"So there… Just don't get smart with me… and don't answer when I say it…"

She shakes her head. "I won't… I'll answer you every time… I swear."

"What…What about the battle?"

"I just kept doing what you were doing. We won. Not a single villager fell to a demon."

"N-Not even… One the frontlines?"

"No. It's a miracle… My clan is saved now."

"You better not… be lying now…" I grunt.

"I'm not… I already told you – I won't lie to you… Ever again…"

And once again I'm lost in her vibrant eyes.

And in that moment we kiss.

Right now the consequences don't matter.

And so we seal out fate together.

And that fate chases us, long into the future.

Chinami's despair. The truth of the Yatagarasu. The origins of this land and the stars in the sky. Hanyuu, and her forgotten past.

Everything has converged on one place – this battleground that I'm forced to call my heart.

All the actors are in place.

So I suppose it's finally time.

It's time for me to begin this tale.

A tale that must be told – before it's too late.

* * *

My eyes shoot open. I bolt upright. My heart races for a few moments. I sigh with relief the moment I know where I am – I'm on the train, just like before. I glance at the clock on the wall next to me. I've only been asleep for twenty minutes… But so much time had gone by, in that memory.

I cup my face with my hands. That experience was far too real… It was just like before. But I'm not in some random fragment anymore… Although the more I think about it, the more I realize that _every _fragment is a random fragment, including this one.

I'd almost entirely forgotten about Hanyuu's relevance to things – that's right, she and Riku Furude married and Ouka Furude was born in the years afterward. But that got me thinking – where was she now? I hadn't seen her since my escape from that glass prison.

And the Frozen Flame – Hanyuu had never so much as spoken about it before. I wasn't sure why she'd been silent about it, but from the way things seemed it most certainly wasn't the product of Nebiros' actions.

I wonder – is the Frozen Flame itself the enemy that I've been fighting for so long?

The Frozen Flame – the will that made fate reality?

Am I supposed to believe such a thing?

But if it was all true…

I stop thinking about it. I've got enough on my plate as it is right now. I don't need to question the meaning of all life on top of everything else.

I sigh once again, taking a deep breath. I try to relax myself as much as possible. Before I realize it, the train has stopped at my destination.

I get off the train and find my way out of the station – for an infrequent form of travel, train stations seemed to be packed to capacity. I guess that the population grew to such an extent over fifty years that this was a small number of people. The train I'd been on, oddly enough, was mostly vacant. I guess it _was _a good idea to take three different trains?

Regardless, here I am, at my destination. The agreed time is only fifty minutes from now, but luckily enough I have a replica of this city's layout stored away in whatever computerized part of my brain had been set aside for such things. I manage to make my way to the diner I was told to head to.

For a modern Japanese city, the streets near this diner seem fairly barren. I wonder if this was the 'lower' section of town with fewer people hanging around. For my purposes, and evidently for the purposes of the person I was going to speak to, such seclusion was perfect.

I enter the rather American looking diner in question. It's mostly empty, save for the occasional patron and, more importantly, who I was looking for. I make my way over to her without hesitation –

I'm almost unsure if I have the right person. But I suppose that fifty years aging like a normal human being caused more change in her than I was used to seeing. I look at her somewhat in disbelief at first.

She smiles at me. "You may want to sit down." She speaks politely.

In the end Hinamizawa was almost a dead end – even now it was nothing more than barren woodland, consisting of little more than the skeletal structure of the buildings that had once been there. But through sneaking around and acquiring Okinomiya's records on the incident in libraries and hospitals, I found all the information I needed.

The Hinamizawa Disaster had taken place, just as is should have. But there was one survivor in this fragment. She was now in her late fifties, or perhaps her early sixties – time had most certainly not been kind to her, however. But even then, she'd agreed to meet me on the basis that I knew her name.

"It's funny… You look just like an old friend of mine. A bit taller, maybe, but… It's so strange…" She smiles as she reminisces on her past – a past that I knew all too well.

I finally take a seat and she continues. "Now… What could you possibly want with an old woman like me?" She speaks somewhat innocently. But she had to know.

"…Miss…Oh, um…"

"Well, I'm a Mrs. Juusa now, but you can call me by that name if you'd like…"

"Okay… Miss Houjou, I'm sure you know what I called you here about."

"About that business in Hinamizawa, right?" She smiles wryly.

"Well, it does have to do with Hinamizawa, but… It isn't about the disaster."

"Oh?" She seems reasonably surprised.

"I'm well aware of the disaster and the circumstances around it, but… There was an incident the year before. The incident that the Onigafuchi Guardians were tied to… Now I _know _you weren't affiliated with them. In fact, it was just the opposite. Your parents… And your brother, if I'm not mistaken, were against them during the dam war."

"You certainly know quite a bit." She laughs.

"So then you're the only one who could possibly know… I want you to tell me about the Blue Mermaid Incident."

Her eyes widen slightly. And in that moment I see it – the spark. The spark that was unique to Satoko, my closest friend.

"Ah, you want to know about _those _murders… Very well, I suppose I can talk, after all these years."

"Please. Anything would help me." I almost give away too much.

"Anything? My dear, I'm going to tell you _everything_." She smiles at me with a smile I knew all too well.

And so she began, from the very beginning.

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

So yeah, explanation time. Potential questions shall be answered and all that.

Yes, we've now crossed over in to Chrono Trigger territory, for those of you that are familiar with that series. No, the Frozen Flame is not the embodiment of Lavos (or whatever the hell it was that ruined the otherwise Chrono-free plot of Radical Dreamers) or anything like that. It's literally what Hanyuu says it is. Nothing more. I'm using the Frozen Flame as the basis for a very specific reason, though – those of you familiar with its source material might be able to reason that reason out.

Yes, this arc will star Satoko. Get ready for some Satoshi action too, though, because I now need to write him _without _a much more likeable personality.

No, the third arc will not be the last arc for the question half of the story. There will be a fourth one as initially planned.

Yes, this is the first time in the series that the 'Sagiri' have been brought up. No, you're not supposed to know anything about them.

…And no, I have no comment in response to the rumored inclusion of mild h-content in Rose Guns Days Season 2. If that would somehow be a question you'd be asking yourself in response to this chapter.

So that's about it. Until next time…


	12. Glorious Days Chapter, Episode 1

(**Warning**: Some fairly strong language pops up later in this chapter. Might be a bit late for that kind of a warning but whatever.)

* * *

_**Glorious Days Chapter, Episode 1**_

_Recollection of Satoko Amasuka_

Our story begins in 1947… No, I'm just kidding.

Instead, our story begins during a period of time that you're probably not all that familiar with – no one is, in all practicality, even if only because of how ordinary a time it was. I'm talking about the December of 1981, a time when the holidays were starting to wind up and there was talk of all sorts – what to buy people for the holidays, what to do over school break, or who was going to end up asking out who. But that was the mentality the rest of the world had – but for Hinamizawa, things weren't as innocent. Even at this point in time the village was caught in the same storm that had begun one year prior – and with that storm came what ultimately led to the events of 1983. But while in 1981 the curse of the Watanagashi seemed as prevalent as ever, there was more to it than that – there always was, but most of it has been lost to the annals of time.

The Dam War – what many believe to be the ultimate start of all of it. The war that my parents were opposed to like the plague and the war that they ironically lost their lives as a result of it. At the time I'd never cared for any of it – my relationship with my parents was bad enough on its own, and while I could cling to Satoshi to solve all my problems I knew that there was going to be a breaking point. I might be old and decrepit now, but I can't remember anything from my past more clearly than those days where I feared for my life without truly knowing what fear really was. There was no doubt in my mind that my parents' deaths were certain no matter what I did. But in the end they found their end at my own hands.

I was unstable, so I was able to go on living without being haunted by the prospect of having killed them. I never really understood what had happened – but now, it's all crystal clear to me. Perhaps it has to do with the nature of that accursed syndrome – perhaps by its nature I was meant to remember only when I was most vulnerable. Perhaps it was in its very nature to toy with the human mind as if it were a spectator at a game.

But because of all of that, the truth was obscured even further – there was a great deal of strife in Hinamizawa that was lost to time, whether caused by the disaster or, as was the case for the majority of it, not. After all, the victors are the ones who determine history – it doesn't matter what one wins. The outside world will more readily accept the stories of the victor, rather than the loser. And because of the nature of the Dam War, the nature of the incident I am about to describe was painted over and twisted to the point where it was unrecognizable – that is, of course, until everything came together in the wild fire that was the disaster you know all too well.

It was this December that the incident in question occurred – most people seem to believe that it occurred in 1982, including the writers of all official records regarding the incident. But this was not the case – it was just before 1982, a mere six days before the end of the month. On paper, it was referred to as the 'Okinomiya Tragedy of Showa 54,' whereas the more popular name for the incident was 'Bloody Christmas' for rather obvious reasons.

I know what you're thinking – wasn't the Blue Mermaid Massacre a serial murder case? Wasn't it an incident where Blue Mermaid regulars were found dead in several places weeks apart from each other? You're right – that _was _the case, but what no one seemed to realize was that it all began with Bloody Christmas. No one seemed to make the connection because a man confessed to the massacre – the authorities took that answer and ran with it, but they were never able to determine his methods. That was, simply put, because he wasn't the actual killer. Bloody Christmas was the end result of someone, and by association some_thing _entirely different. And it all ties it to the Blue Mermaid and… Well, you'll see eventually.

On the morning of Bloody Christmas, I'd been in Okinomiya with Satoshi Houjou, my older brother, who I'll henceforth designate as 'Nii-Nii' for personal reasons. We were there with Rika Furude, my best friend, mainly to help her deal with the deaths of her parents that occurred almost a half a year prior. When they had vanished, she'd been more terrified than I had ever seen her before. Being as young as I was I wasn't entirely sure what I could've done for her. But Nii-Nii knew. He knew exactly how to help her, mainly because he already had one little sister and could go about talking to Rika as if she were his second one.

In the months that followed I witnessed an incredibly strange change in her – whenever her parents came up in any sort of discussion she seemed to turn a blind eye to it all. She seemed so suddenly indifferent that it seemed almost out of place for her. Having killed my own parents, I subconsciously started to suspect her of having done the same. I could never place the feeling back then – but as Nii-Nii and I began visiting her every day, that feeling faded away rather quickly. Especially when Rika managed to see straight through our happy faces and into the core of the problems we were dealing with. I never felt closer to her than I did when she consoled me back in September of that year.

We were in Okinomiya due entirely to Rika's own request – we were slowly starting to owe her quite a lot, but I would later learn that the reason why we ever went there on Christmas Day in the first place was to allow Shion Sonozaki, an unfortunate girl with a sizable crush on my brother, and Nii-Nii to meet up for the first time in quite awhile. At this point Shion had been back in Hinamizawa for a short four months – she'd just gotten off of one of the worst rides of her life, courtesy of St. Lucia's Boarding School, where she caused so much chaos she evidently earned the nickname 'Devil Student' and was revered enough that she'd probably go down in history as an urban legend. Rika seemingly felt the need to cheer her up, even though at this point Nii-Nii didn't even know her all that well yet.

On that day I was somewhat peaceful. My uncle had been out drinking the night previously so Nii-Nii actually got sleep. There wasn't any threat to us that night – without our uncle present our aunt didn't have the courage to grandstand. I didn't realize it at the time, but she had an irrational fear of Nii-Nii. Because he could take more abuse than she could fathom and still stay strong despite it. My uncle unfortunately didn't share that sentiment, but at least Nii-Nii was in good enough spirits to leave the house with me the next morning.

Shion had already taken her job at Angel Mort, and so all three of us ended up heading there that morning. Shion was evidently being forced to work to make up for some mess that happened the week before, but only for the morning. Evidently breakfast time on Christmas Day was one of the busiest times of the entire year for Angel Mort. Nii-Nii was told that she worked there and showed no objection to paying a visit, although Rika never revealed her true intentions.

The entire morning was spent there, with a rather ecstatic Shion stopping by our table a few times too many. But it was fun for all of us anyhow – until Shion was being harassed by one of the customers as usual. Nii-Nii actually considered helping her out of it, but being who he is he didn't really work up the courage to do so. In the end I ended up working a trap that would make it _seem _as though Nii-Nii had stood up for her. And when the two of them went at it he actually yelled at the man – making that the very first time Nii-Nii ever really stood up for anyone other than me, even if he hadn't done it intentionally. Rika could barely contain her laughter – I knew that she secretly adored teasing my brother, even if it was in ways not quite as extreme.

Nii-Nii was a bit odd in his own right – he was quiet and demure, but whenever he deemed that I was in any sort of danger, he'd be at my side in an instant. I was lucky to have had a brother like him, regardless of my circumstances – there were plenty of older brothers in the world that wouldn't give their sisters the time of day. Perhaps that side of him that always seemed to appear whenever I was in danger was what drew Shion to him – or perhaps it was his seemingly all-knowing patience and understanding he exerted whenever he spoke to someone that she found the need to cling to. Regardless, he had a heart of gold – even if not that many people around him cared all that much.

Growing up he wasn't exactly popular amongst the kids in the village – since the Dam War, people his own age speaking to him had become essentially taboo until Mion took pity on us and let us join her club. But he went through more on a daily basis than most people went through in their entire lives. Shion had most definitely seen that in him – as had Rika and Mion. We were lucky that, despite everything that seemed to go wrong for us in that village, that Mion, Shion, and all the others took us in.

But our immediate family never made things easy on him – in the end he spent most of his time trying to protect me. And in the end I never really realized just how much damage it had all done to him. Although at this point in time he was still the same as ever – he was at least more lucid of the things around him now than he became later on. I never really knew what possessed him to help Rika, though, considering how his relationship with the other members of the club was strained at best – but at the time I told myself that it didn't burden him at all. But rather obviously, telling myself one thing while something entirely different presents itself to me in an extravagant fashion makes all of it amount to nothing.

We were on our way back to the bus stop when it all happened. Afterward I was just happy to be alive. But the things I saw – no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't convince myself that it was all just an act of terrorism. No matter how many times Nii-Nii tried to tell me that it was all over, I knew that it was all just beginning.

* * *

_Days Remain (December 25__th__, 1981)  
__Satoko Houjou_

With Nii-Nii at my side I continue my idle chatter with Rika. She was in an abnormally good mood – maybe it was because we'd had such a good time today, or maybe it'd been because she'd seen us in good spirits for once. But not matter what had made her so happy, she was being extremely talkative and had gone back to her usual self without much issue. It was a nice Christmas present for all three of us – Nii-Nii was even relaxed today.

We head towards the town square, our plan to take the bus back to the village and probably do something with the rest of the club. There weren't enough days like today for us, so we'd be spending this one to the fullest. Rena and Mion both probably had something planned for us – I already knew that Rena was going to pull Nii-Nii out of baseball next week for whatever reason, but it was likely that she was working on something unrelated with Mion.

I glance as Nii-Nii for a moment – he's somewhat deep in thought, but I can't really think of anything that would be on his mind. Shouldn't he be relieving his stress instead of adding fuel to it? I almost think to ask him before Rika pulls me aside to marvel at a stray cat she saw go down an alleyway. When I look again he's smiling at me as usual. I decide to stow my suspicions for now and enjoy the rest of the afternoon.

We end up outside the police station after Rika wanders after a few more cats while Nii-Nii follows us around without a care in the world. Rika was in the mood to explore, so we put our return plans off for a bit. At this time of day there were a few small groups of people hanging around – the station was parallel to a popular string of shops that were always packed around this time of year.

"Hey, Satoko…" Rika whispers to me while Nii-Nii goes to buy us pretzels. "…Do you think Satoshi really likes Shion?"

"I don't know… I hope so."

"Before, I thought…" She hesitates to continue her thought. I look at her – her bubbly joy and infectious smile seem to have faded. Something serious was on her mind.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"…If there was a way that you could get two people who should love each other to stay together, would you do it?"

"U-Um… Say that again?" I wasn't sure if I'd heard her correctly the first time.

"If you could make two people love each other, would you do it? No matter what you had to do?"

I fall silent.

Would I make two people love each other?

What kind of question was that?

_Of course _I would.

I'd make my uncle love my brother so he won't hit him anymore. I'd make Nii-Nii love Shion so he'd have someone to rely on. But would I do _anything_? I honestly couldn't say that I would.

"Rika…Why'd you ask –"

But my sentence is cut short, eternally at that. I never continue my thought and the meaning behind Rika's question goes missing.

A massive explosion shakes the police department. Followed by another explosion across the street. Before I know it at least five explosives have gone off around me and I have yet to register even one of them. My vision is obscured by the smoke and my ears are ringing, but I'm unharmed otherwise –

Then someone's headless body flies across the street, landing a few feet away from me. I don't scream, and neither does Rika. We simply stand there in shock as pandemonium breaks out around us.

The street is flooded with terror – screams fill my ears as Rika grabs my hand. Was she going to run? Was there any point to running if we couldn't see?

"Trust me." She speaks as calmly as I've ever heard her speak. I don't respond, but before I even have the chance to she takes off with me in tow –

But then another explosive goes off, this one close by. Rika fades from view as I'm torn from her, all of my senses distorted by the intensity of the blast. I desperately try to reach out to her as the sheer force of the blast lifts me off of the ground. I land headfirst into the sidewalk beneath me, losing consciousness almost instantly.

When my eyes snap back open I see nothing but the grey haze of the smoke. The sun barely shines through, but there isn't enough light for me to see clearly. I recall that my head just took a massive blow – I reach around, somewhat relieved to find that I'm not bleeding. But in the sheer confusion of it all I never let it register–

Rika…Nii-Nii… Where are they?!

My eyes regain their focus and I feel that I can move. I try to stand, rising to my feet without much issue. My head throbs with pain, but I manage to tough it out as I call out.

"Rika? Nii-Nii?!" My voice is garbled slightly, but I was loud enough.

I'm responded to with a cry for help. It's a woman's cry – but it was suddenly and brutally silenced by the sound of steel slicing flesh. That same sound echoed around me – and curdled screams of women and children resonated with it. The ringing in my ears is gone, but in that moment I want nothing more than to be deaf.

There's…

There's someone…

There's someone out there, killing people…

And I'm so close.

I'm scared…

And I find myself calling for my brother.

I run almost in circles, searching the lifeless bodies for some sign of my brother. I make my way up the stairs leading to the department, stepping over corpses with slit throats and damaged faces while hysterically calling his name.

And then on the ground in front of me I can see him –

He's here, on the ground, with a hole through his chest…!

I become silent –

But it _isn't _him…?!

I take another look –

It's someone with an identical face – identical clothes, even. The look on his face is one of pure terror – it was a face I'd seen mirrored on my brother's own face. This boy isn't any older either – he's so identical that the only difference between the two is this boy's hair.

His hair was brown. I sigh with relief.

But then I hear the brandishing of a blade.

And I turn.

And what I see scars me more than anything else.

Who I see standing there, and what they are doing –

I can't fathom it.

It was simply so horrifying.

I can't remember their face, no matter how hard I try.

But I stared them down despite all of that – I stared down the one responsible for all of it.

They were standing there, wearing a long black coat and a white headband seemingly in bancho style, their skin splashed with fresh blood and their face partially obscured by it. And they looked at me with a dead, pitiful look in their eyes.

It's something you'd see in a horror film. It's something you'd read about a thousand times. It's something countless anime show you in a harmless format.

But tear away the walls that make it all fiction and you have this – a reality that I, at the age of ten, was forcefully exposed to. The reality of despair. Despair that my brother was hiding me from with all his might.

And they speak as they run their katana through a woman crawling on the ground, their eyes never shifting from mine for even a moment.

"Run, run, run away… Jack the Ripper's here to stay…"

"W-Who…Why are…?!" I find myself trying to communicate, but my eyes shift between the bleeding man on the floor and person standing before me, killing him.

They smile at me, the corners of their mouth twitching as a tear streaks down the side of their face. "Run, run, run away…" They rip the blade out of the now dead woman and point it towards me, splashing me with blood from the fresh wound.

All it took was that to get me to turn and run.

But they stop me. They grab a hold of me, and in that moment I know that I'm about to die –

Of course, against everything I knew to be possible, I didn't die then. Only because someone saved me.

Someone – someone I never really got a good look at, at that – steps between me and the killer. What reasons they had for throwing their life away in place of mine remains unclear, but they stood there, squaring off with my attacker.

"Go now." They speak in a low voice. I take a few seconds to register what's been said, but the moment I do I take off without really understanding what had just happened.

Before I know it I've made my way down the street, towards the edge of the smoke. I make it out to the other side, screaming all the way.

I'm finally hit with sunlight. It's as if it suddenly became daytime.

I find myself faced with a crowd of people, many of which were police officers, many of which had aimed their firearms at me upon my emergence. And before I know it I'm led off to the side by a police officer I'm sure I've seen somewhere before and towards a horrified Rika, who embraces me as tightly as she could.

"I'm sorry…" She whispers into my ear repeatedly as I try to get my bearings.

"Why are… you apologizing?" I ask her.

"I let you go." Her body shakes as her emotions are set free.

And I'm left there, embracing her, as I try to understand what had just happened.

* * *

_The Recollection of Satoko Amasuka_

"So… You were at the center of all of it?" The girl sitting before me, now drinking coffee, finally spoke.

"It's the truth. I suppose you'd never believe any of it, but that's the case."

"Whether or not I believe you shouldn't matter if it's the truth." She points out something fairly obvious.

It's strange – the more I hear her speak, the more I seem to recall that strange complacency that governed Rika during some of our darker days together. They had more similarities than just appearance – although Rika's hair was nowhere as ridiculously colored. But that aside, it was incredibly strange just now easy she'd taken all of this – I'd recounted the most horrifying experience in my entire life, yet she'd just kept drinking her coffee. She'd gone through two cups already – I'm starting to regret offering to pay for everything, especially if this trend continues. She was an odd one, alright – but Rika was always an odd one as well.

"That may be the case." I respond.

"But what about Satoshi?"

"He was recovered from the street a few hours later, after the police were able to walk into the smoke without being completely blinded. Of course by then seventeen people were dead and at least thirty were injured."

"Recovered? That doesn't sound good."

"He was fine, of course. He'd been knocked unconscious by one of the explosions – he was lucky, though. One of the explosives had been placed at the pretzel stand he'd been to – the vendor was killed instantly. He would've died the same way if he'd left a second later."

"Sounds like a miracle to me."

"A miracle? I wouldn't consider _anything _that happened to my brother that day a miracle." I laugh. "But I know you're curious – how does this tie in with the Blue Mermaid incident?"

"One of the bodies found was a body of a regular, I take it?"

"Well, you're right about that… But more importantly, there's the circumstances surrounding that person's death that make the connection…"

* * *

_Days Remain (February 2__nd__, 1982)  
__Satoko Houjou_

Without any warning seventeen people were killed – luckily no one important to me was among them, but even then what had at first been one of the rare pleasant days we could enjoy deteriorated into an afternoon spent at the police station. We were all questioned as we had all emerged from the smoke at one time or another. There wasn't anything we could tell them – well, I did, at one point, mention how someone was actively going around and killing people even after the explosives went off, but in the end there was nothing they could gather from any of it.

But much to our surprise, someone came forth a few weeks later, towards the end of January and confessed to all of it. Everyone was happy to know that the one responsible for such horrific deaths was behind bars, but there was something that didn't sit well with me. The person I saw – that person and the person who turned themselves in were two different people. That much I knew for certain.

Nii-Nii tried to convince me that it was all over, but I didn't let it go. Instead, I found myself asking Oishi-san about the man the next time I saw him. It would seem that the man was mentally unstable, which evidently made it impossible to actually find him guilty in court. But he was deemed deranged enough to attempt the murder of people he had no connection to whatsoever, so he was the one officially labeled a criminal for that disaster.

Somewhat tragically, the morning of his trial he was shot by a grieving parent who lost his wife and son that morning and died in a hospital bed a few days later. I was the only one who really understood that the man was innocent – but why, then, did he turn himself in? Was he perhaps an accomplice of some sort?

I found myself attached to the idea that someone had _made _him confess – and the fact that whoever had attacked me was still out there and was likely responsible made it impossible for me to take it off my mind. But eventually, thanks to sheer dumb luck, I managed to stumble upon something that changed everything.

My uncle was on the phone with someone one evening. He wasn't aware that I was listening in, so he didn't abbreviate his talk in any way.

What was strange was that his voice seemed to be shaking. He was actually afraid of something for once – but what could _he_ be afraid of?

Perhaps a lot of things, now that I think about it. But whatever he was talking about – it made him unusually anxious.

"No, I _don't _know where that tramp was last night. No, I _don't._ I haven't seen her since Rina brought her over, and… No, I haven't been screwing with her on the side. And if you don't tell me what the fuck you're – w-wait, she's… You're screwin' with me, man. And you're being a real prick right now –" He goes silent for a few seconds before he speaks again. "…That bastard from the precinct… What's he doing talking with you guys?" There's a long pause before my uncle suddenly exclaims. "_Holy shit… _She was _murdered_? What the _fuck_?"

Someone was killed? Someone my uncle knew?

"Where'd they find her? On top of a – who the fuck _does _that to someone? You're not saying… No, my niece and nephew were in that crowd, they got out just fine, they weren't hit… Wait, you don't think… They were going after _him_, do you?" He grunts. "But didn't the guy who did it get shot? We didn't know 'im. There's no way we have anything to do with it."

More silence. But my uncle slams his fist into the wall. I really wanted to hear what the other person was saying right about now.

"Those bastards… If you're right, we've gotta protect all our hides now… Yeah, we should meet up as soon as we can. How about next Tuesday at that diner in town? No, not the one with the maids, they practically run that joint too. Yeah, you didn't know? One of the kids works there – I'm talking about the other joint. Primavera, I think it's called. Call up the other guys and tell them to show up at five – I'll take care of the rest." My uncle hangs up and sighs. I work my way out of earshot and head to my room without another word.

That night my uncle didn't bother us at all – it wasn't as if he hated our guts any less, but he had more pressing things on his mind than what the other villagers thought of him. And I was going to find out what.

The following Tuesday, the second of February, came before I could really put together any plan aside from learning where Primavera was. It was an odd diner, hidden fairly well among the shops in Okinomiya, but was relatively popular among the regulars. My uncle had apparently gone there several times before with some friends – of course none of them were Hinamizawa residents and all worked in Okinomiya.

But what was strange was how everyone that was going to show up were friends my uncle had made at the Blue Mermaid. So why weren't they going to meet up there? It wasn't like it was a packed place – in fact, Primavera might have been more crowded.

So what reasons did they have for avoiding their usual place?

I eventually dug up some old details about the Blue Mermaid after talking to Mion one morning. It was a bad place, run by the Sonozakis that evidently paid for Shion's St. Lucia education among other things. Perhaps _that _was why my uncle was avoiding the Blue Mermaid? Because he and his friends were discussing things that they didn't want Mion's family to know about?

I find myself in my room on the second, doing nothing but mulling things over. I have no idea where to go from here – I couldn't exactly eavesdrop on them without some kind of cover, but unfortunately even for me sneaking my way into a diner I'd never even been inside was too difficult.

But before noon, Nii-Nii comes to check up on me.

"You're still in bed?" He expresses his concern. "Our uncle's out of the house, you know."

"That's just it." I sigh.

"What, you're not content with even that?" He sighs, grinning somewhat lopsided at me. "You've got something on your mind. It's probably about what happened last Christmas. I think I told you –"

"It's not over. At least not yet."

He gives me a rather odd look, but once I explain everything to him he seems to understand exactly what's going through my head.

"So you're saying that uncle's in trouble now?" He turns away from me, sighing again. "Isn't that a _good _thing?"

"But it's not just him that's in trouble."

"Right, he's got a bunch of friends as well. People we definitely shouldn't care about –"

"I think Mion might be involved. Shion too. They upset the family, and they're having their meeting today to talk about it. I think they think Mion's family killed one of them. So… So I want to make sure that neither of them get hurt."

Nii-Nii doesn't respond at first. But then he sighs. "So those two might've walked into another mess, huh?"

I didn't quite get what he was saying – what did he mean by _another _mess? I then recall that Rena had pulled him out of baseball practice a week or two ago for whatever reason – perhaps that was what he was referring to?

"So where are they hanging out again?"

"So… So you'll help me?" I'm somewhat surprised at how quickly he seemed to change sides.

"We owe both of them quite a bit, don't we?" He smiles warmly at me.

With that I explain things to him one more time. We had to find some way to get into Primavera before five o'clock and listen in on their conversation. Doing so most certainly would be risky – if they saw us it was all over. We had to be close enough without standing out – doing so wasn't going to be easy by any means.

"Well, there's at least one easy way to get in."

"What's that?"

"Make a reservation."

"Um… Would that work?"

"Sure. And just in case they're on the lookout for anyone from the village, we can make it under a fake name. Sounds good?"

I decide to go with what he said. He might not have looked it, but Nii-Nii was good at coming up with simple solutions to the hardest problems. If I didn't already find my homework from Chie-sensei to be really easy, Nii-Nii would be able to get it done in a flash. Luckily enough for me, he was actually willing to put work into this, even if only to keep me from going out and doing it on my own.

Nii-Nii decides to use the phone in my room. "You've got the number for this place."

"Sure I do." I gave him a small sheet of paper with all the information I'd gathered on the place. He dials the number and in a few seconds someone picks up. He moves the phone close to me so I could hear the call.

"_This is Club Primavera. May I help you?"_

Nii-Nii clears his throat. "Ah, yeah, I'd like to make a reservation for this afternoon… Say around four thirty?"

"_How many people in your party?"_

"Just two."

"_Alright. Table for two… Four thirty… Alright, I can do that for you. And your name?"_

Nii-Nii freezes up. He looks towards me as if he wants me to come up with a fake name for him before he responds on impulse.

"Sumidera."

"_Okay. We'll see you then." _The man hangs up without another word.

Nii-Nii sighs with relief. "At least he was a nice guy."

"Nice going." I laugh at him. "Where'd _Sumidera_ come from?"

"I don't know. I just… said it." He smiles.

Now it was just a waiting game – although the real challenge was about to begin. We were going to arrive early, so it would certainly be easier for us to go unnoticed if we just stayed seated the whole time. But there was still the matter of actually listening in on their conversation.

If we pulled this off – I'm not really sure what will happen, but things would definitely change. I find myself wondering – do I want that change, or am I just trying to find the truth behind the dead look in that person's eyes?

* * *

_Club Primavera, Later That Day  
__Satoko Houjou_

Getting into the diner was no problem whatsoever. Getting to our table wasn't that big a deal either. But right when things actually started happening – _that _was when all hell broke loose. We ended up ordering food that Nii-Nii wasn't even sure he could pay for, but in the end the bill was the least troublesome thing we had to deal with.

We find ourselves fidgeting around nervously – there was a lot of risk here, and it definitely showed on us. Our waiter actually had asked before if there was something wrong with our drinks. The longer it took for uncle to show up, the more nervous we'd look. Eventually my omelet with fried rice and Nii-Nii's… whatever the hell he'd ordered – it looked something like seaweed on top of god knows what kind of meat – arrive and we do little more than pick at it. We certainly couldn't leave before our uncle and his friends even got here, but the more money we spent the worse things would get.

But then we're saved. Sort of. A waiter leads two more people to our table. He figures out that there was evidently more than one reservation made under the name Sumidera – but at this point the diner was completely packed, and they would have to wait for another table to open. Both of them were no older than my brother – and likely solely because of that fact Nii-Nii offers them seats at our table. I try to hide my disbelief when they both accept.

The two of them seem to be siblings, both with blonde hair… And oddly enough seemed to reflect the two of _us _rather well.

The girl looks between her brother and mine multiple times before speaking. "Am I seeing double or something?" We all laugh, aside from her brother who sort of laughs silently.

"Thanks for letting us sit here." The boy thanks us politely.

"It's not a problem… But, uh…" Nii-Nii trails off.

I finish his sentence. "You guys wouldn't mind splitting the bill with us, would you? We… didn't realize that we didn't have the money for our food."

"Unless your food costs more than 6000 yen we're good." The girl smiles before diverting her attention to Nii-Nii. "But really, this is too weird. You two are, like, _identical_. One twin brother's good enough for me, thanks."

"I'm guessing you two are related?" Nii-Nii gets a confirmation to his inquiry. "See, we're siblings too."

"We might as well be the same people." The brother sighs. "Oh, right. Uh, I'm Rai Sumidera, my sister's-"

"I'm Yomi. Nice to meet you. We're from out of town, in case you were wondering." She extends her hand to my brother as she gives him a million dollar smile. He takes her hand and they shake, but she doesn't offer her hand to me.

"Satoshi Houjou... My sister's Satoko. We're actually not from around here either, believe it or not." Nii-Nii barely gets out before breaking into a coughing fit.

"Ooh… You sound sick." Sumidera-chan expresses her concern before something suddenly hits her. "Wait, you said your name was Houjou? Then…"

"It's a _really _long story. I'd like to avoid talking about it." Nii-Nii sighs. Both Sumidera siblings seem to have no problems with that response. "A-Anyway, where are the two of you from?" As he asks that question, he taps my arm under the table, grabbing my hand and pointing my finger in a direction –

In that direction I see him – our uncle's finally arrived and it seems he hasn't seen us. Without these two we'd probably have been spotted in a matter of seconds – he was way too close for comfort. He and several friends were making their way towards a table fairly close to ours. I go back to eating my omelet as I try to listen in on what they were saying. While acting like I was paying attention to the two in front of me.

"Akihabara, believe it or not." Rai sighs. "But not for much longer at any rate. We were looking to move to a small place called Hinamizawa. You familiar with it?"

"Actually, we're from Hinamizawa." Nii-Nii does his best to lead the conversation as he takes note of what I'm going. He's really bad at this sort of thing, so I'd have to give him a pat on the back later.

Sumidera-chan seems delighted. "Ooh, that's great, we were looking for some people to show us around."

"Good thing you didn't ask the wrong people…"

Sumidera-chan frowns slightly.

"A-Ah, I mean, there's always rumors going around about our village. Same thing about this place – I guess it's just a social thing." Nii-Nii tries to recover from his trip-up. I squeeze his hand reassuringly.

I tune out the two siblings as my uncle starts talking.

"Right then… If you guys don't know by now, two more of our guys got snuffed this morning."

"I told you guys – they know what's going on. They're after us and they aren't gonna stop until we're all fucked."

"First Burai, then Burai's bitch – it's gonna be the same for the rest of us."

"Woah, calm the fuck down." My uncle speaks again. "We don't know if they're gonna cut us off one by one. But we _do _know that _they're _the one's doing it."

"How much you wanna bet that old dog finally kicked the bucket? Why else would they want the money so badly?"

"_Fuck_… Then if you're right, who's gonna be the next head?"

"The older daughter, right?"

"Fuck, that bitch… Did you hear about her? She _killed _someone during that dam war. I think it was the director or the construction head or something."

"Not surprised. They're all fucked up, those Sonozakis."

My eyes widen. They were talking about Mion just now – and her family. And what was this about money? Were my uncle and his friends in debt or something?

"We never should've done it." One of the men suddenly speaks, his concern showing clearly through his voice.

"Calm the fuck down." My uncle tries to get a word in – his friends were all definitely afraid of something. And in a few seconds I'll know what. "Did you bring the note?"

"Yeah…" I hear shuffling.

"Alright, so this is what they found with the body. Not sure what the fuck this is about, but it's some kind of a warning."

"Who the fuck's Jack the Ripper?"

Jack the Ripper?

That name sounded familiar –

Ah, right…

_Run, run, run away… Jack the Ripper's here to stay…_

That's what the killer had said.

So then the recent deaths – they were caused by this Jack the Ripper. The same person who'd nearly killed me.

And Jack the Ripper… was a Sonozaki?

"Who'd you think? The guy who's going after us."

"Some kind of assassin. Probably a hired hand."

"Way too normal for these fuckers. He's probably their fucking _gardener_."

"Let's not start this bullcrap now." My uncle speaks up again. "All we have to do is stay calm about this – if we just figure out who it is, we fuck them up, and –"

"And wait a few days before they send a fucking army after us. We're _fucked, _don't you get it?!"

"Let's just think about this – "

"We've done enough thinking. We've gotta give them back their money."

"How the fuck are we gonna do that?! We spent it all, you _shithead_!"

"Maybe we should just go beg for –"

"Whoa, shut the fuck up for a second!" My uncle almost shouts. "We're not begging or giving them anything. We're gonna just be really careful. Maybe catch this guy in the act. Make everyone know the Sonozakis were responsible. Then they can't touch us. They'll get burned alive if they do."

"Big talk from someone who's not knee deep in shit."

"Yeah, that's right – you _live _there. You're good to go."

My uncle was being ostracized by his close friends – he definitely deserved it, though. It seems as though this conversation won't end in his favor.

"He's got a point, though." Someone speaks up in his defense. "If we get the law to hound them down they can't do jack shit. We'll be home free if we pull up some dirt on them."

"How are we gonna do that, though?"

"Get Teppei to do it. His niece is friends with the older twin, right?"

"Ah, yeah, she is…" My uncle formulates a plan right there on the spot. "It'll be easy if I play my cards right."

"What? You're gonna threaten her to snoop on them?"

"Nah, I've got something different in mind. Don't worry, guys – I'll find us something before anyone else gets fucked up, alright?"

The conversation seems to change direction from there. They go off about more typical conversation as their food arrives. I felt slightly sick to my stomach, but at least I knew now what the circumstances were.

If the Sonozaki family really _was _responsible for that massacre… I didn't want to think about what would happen. But as it seemed, circumstances had deemed it so.

My timeline of events was pretty much in order –

A man named Burai was near the police station on Christmas Day. 'Jack the Ripper' was after him, but in the process killed sixteen other people and injured plenty more. Following that, Burai's significant other or someone to that effect was killed, and a warning letter from Jack the Ripper was found with her body, threatening to kill another member of the circle and likely their significant other.

All of this was caused by something these men had done – they had seemingly stolen money from the Sonozaki family, likely through the Blue Mermaid. And they had been caught.

But for some reason, my uncle wasn't at risk because he lived in Hinamizawa. Perhaps something in the letter signified that only those living in Okinomiya would be targeted. All I knew was that my uncle was going to be watching me closely – I had to limit my contact with Shion and Mion both for the time being. I had to tell Nii-Nii to do the same.

I suddenly remember that I'm sitting at a table with two people I don't know. It would seem that neither one of the siblings noticed that I wasn't paying attention, so I wait for the right moment to jump back into the conversation. It would seem that Sumidera-chan was insulting her brother and Nii-Nii, being who he is, came to his defense. At least it hadn't been anything too serious. Everyone else at this point had finished eating – we could slip out now without any problem. I tug Nii-Nii's shirt, letting him know that I was finished. He almost immediately relaxes. The banter becomes much more relaxed – Sumidera-chan almost calls me out on my spacing out, but her brother reminds her not to be rude – he does that several times, in fact. It would seem that Yomi was the unruly of the two – Rai seemed to be too demure for his own good, but Nii-Nii was the same way, at least in outward appearance.

Eventually my uncle and his friends leave. Nii-Nii notices this, so he decides to wrap our talking up. With little difficulty, we leave our share of the bill at the table and leave before we can get hassled anymore. Yomi did, however, make Nii-Nii promise to show her around the village sometime in the future.

"It's not like I'm going to have anything better to do." He tries to make an excuse for accepting. "Uncle won't be beating us up anytime, that's for sure. Especially if it's all true."

"But he's going to be watching us. Pretty carefully too."

"Then what better way to draw him away from Mion and the others than to involve ourselves with someone else entirely?"

"You don't sound like you're making a hard decision…" I trail off, squinting my eyes at him. "You _like_ that girl, don't you?" I should've thought of that right away – it's not very often that Nii-Nii gets to have an overly energetic girl fawn over him. It was healthy for him, but had Shion seen any of it Yomi-chan wouldn't wake up tomorrow morning. I mean that as literally as I said it.

"It's nothing like that." He sighs. "You think I _want _to ignore our friends? We have to keep them out of harm's way for awhile. This is the best way to do it. It's the least we can do for them."

"Seems more like you're trying to kill two birds with one stone."

He sighs again.

I smile at him. "I'm only kidding." I latch myself onto his arm. "I don't care what you do in your free time. It's better if I don't."

He doesn't have a response for that – we just spend the few minutes it takes us to reach the bus stop in silence.

I take the time to consider the facts so far.

My uncle is the only person involved in that circle that has no risk of being killed. He knows I'm friends with the Sonozaki daughters, and as long as he stays on their good side he's golden. If he were to continue beating us and either one of us would snap and go to them for help, he'd be finished. He'd have to stow away his usual behavior and let us live normally for a change – otherwise, we'd never pull up any dirt on them, accidentally or otherwise. And on top of that, we knew that those were his intentions, so we could act on the contrary and we'd never know. We'd finally gotten some sort of a peaceful respite – at least until this Jack the Ripper business blew over.

But at the same time we were in danger. I knew, almost for certain, that Jack the Ripper would not let _anyone _involved with whatever crime my uncle had committed freely. We had to find this person, discover who they really were, and put a stop to them. Otherwise we'd be just as much at risk as Mion and the others. It seemed like I was going against my best wishes, but in the end I know that the two of us would rather have things go back to the way they were than have our close friends ripped away from us.

I decide then that I'd do everything that I could to uncover the mystery of Jack the Ripper.

If only I had any idea of what that would entail…

* * *

_The Recollection of Satoko Amasuka_

"So you knew ahead of time that the Sonozakis were the ones likely responsible for it all?" It would seem that this girl was retaining far more than I had expected, considering how the entire time I was speaking she seemed to be focused on everything but me – the cars going by outside, the people crossing the street, her twenty-first cup of coffee – yet it seemed that she was paying full attention. She was being a bit rude, perhaps, but I had a feeling that I couldn't judge this girl based on things like visual characteristics.

"Yes, that was the case." I respond accordingly.

"And you didn't try to investigate them right away?"

"Of course I didn't. If I had my uncle would've found out – I had to make every move against Jack the Ripper in total secrecy."

"Ah, I see… So then Jack the Ripper _was _a Sonozaki?"

"Well… We'll have to get to that part first before I can tell you, right?" I smile at her.

"Ah, right… There's more to it than just one person, right?"

"That's right… Now, moving on, there was a bit more to the presence of those two twins than I may have liked…"

"Ah, right… Where exactly did they come from again?"

"Hm… You know, I really never asked them. Probably my brother knew – no, I'm certain he knew."

"And you'd never seen them before, right?"

"No. But I suppose if Keiichi-kun had found his way to Hinamizawa, then others might have as well. It's not like the village was closed to the outside world."

"Ah, that right…" She trails off before focusing on me for once. "So then they just appeared in the village one day after the two of you met them?"

"Well, the brother didn't really appear much after that point. He was a bit… A bit more reclusive than his sister. The sister was very much a normal girl."

She sips her coffee. "Very much normal? As in very much in love with Satoshi?"

I laugh. "Well, I guess that _would _make her normal, wouldn't it? But what was always strange was that her brother and mine were identical."

"I see… So it was strange that she'd go after someone identical to her own twin… Unless…"

"I see you're starting to figure things out on your own."

"But does it have any significance?"

"_Of course _it does, my dear. Why else would I have brought it up?"

And so I continue my tale – it was now that things were starting to come together. Things I'd rather have never recounted to anyone.

* * *

_Days Remain (March 25__th__, 1982)  
__Satoko Houjou_

Much time had passed since my desperate search for Jack the Ripper began. There was no doubt in my mind that he was in Hinamizawa, and finding him would be possible if I tried as hard as possible. I end up spending much of my newfound free time in my efforts to both avoid Mion, which ironically enough included stalking her to her home and snooping around her room, as well as her mother's room and Shion's as well. I was never actually caught, much to my surprise – I would've picked the Sonozaki Estate to be a fairly difficult joint to break into.

From what I could tell, none of them seemed to have any connection to Jack the Ripper. I found no sign of the clothes he had worn in any of their rooms. Eventually I find myself going there just to see if anything had changed – but there was no sign of any of this underhanded dealing that my uncle was evidently a part of anywhere on Sonozaki ground – this, of course, excludes the underground chambers that were supposed to be out of use. If there was to be any indication of Jack the Ripper's whereabouts, it would likely be down there. But I had no idea of where to even find the entrance to the underground chambers, let alone how to navigate them.

Eventually I gave up somewhere in early March. There wasn't anything I could do until something else happened – it would seem that none of my uncle's friends had died between the start of February and now. Perhaps the danger had passed. Maybe the warning was just psychological warfare to ensure that the men in that group wouldn't try anything stupid. But they continued to fear for their lives – especially my uncle, who grew more afraid of the Sonozaki family every day.

But I knew it wouldn't last.

And it didn't. Towards the end of March, he beat my brother senseless one night, cursing the Sonozakis as he did so.

Of course at this point in time my brother wasn't anywhere near as isolated as he had once been. In the aftermath of uncle's rekindled activity, he found himself abandoning baseball altogether – all because someone had made a promise to him. A promise that they evidently had been completely serious about.

I'm talking about Sumidera-chan. She'd worked out our circumstances from Nii-Nii's behavior alone – I'd figure that he'd be easy to read, but not quite _that _easy. She ended up promising to answer his every beck and call – it seemed innocent and sweet, but it was far from either of those things. Even if Yomi did know deep down how twisted she was.

Nii-Nii found himself confiding in her more and more, each and every day. She was always there – she never seemed to have plans, but more ominously Rai was nowhere to be seen. Nii-Nii had ascertained that he was living somewhere else and that our first encounter with them was actually an instance of the two of them lying to their parents to spend time together.

I was beginning to put the pieces of the puzzle together. It seemed that Jack the Ripper wasn't the only mystery that had entered my life so suddenly – but this time it was my brother that was in trouble.

It became clear to me that Yomi had a sick obsession with her brother. And she was using Nii-Nii, perhaps subconsciously, to satisfy that obsession. I was almost completely opposed to what came next in their unhealthy connection.

In the events leading up to this very day, Nii-Nii started having nightmares. Nightmares that seemed to leave him physically exhausted. I had planned on getting Irie-sensei to look at him, but he was never around whenever I visited the clinic. But these nightmares – he could recall the details for me far too vividly.

He had dreams of Yomi – but not very good dreams, at that. He always dreamed of being in the woods behind Rika's shrine, mortally wounded and bleeding profusely. He'd stumble through the forest, and he'd find her there. She'd seem so dead. Her eyes would be so empty. She'd call the name of some other girl – Yoko, I believe her name was – and in an instant her throat would be slit, and Nii-Nii would be holding a bloodied katana.

He became extremely afraid when this dream recurred. He thought it meant something. And coupled with our uncle's abuse he never had the time to rationally renounce that idea – it festered like an open wound. And it started to tear away at time.

Today, on the twenty-fifth, I find myself following him. I'd become too worried about him, but I had a much more immediate problem that I had to solve – if this persisted, he'd lose himself in his madness. He wasn't strong enough – no one could be truly strong enough.

He ends up loitering near the river. He's unaware of my presence, but he's there, just loitering. Eventually Yomi appears – she's aware of his inner turmoil almost immediately.

"What's wrong?" She questions him in a soft tone of voice.

"You should stop seeing me."

"Why would I want to do that?" She says with a sigh after a slight pause.

"I'll end up hurting you."

"This about your uncle, isn't it?" She sees through it instantly.

"If we keep doing this, you're going to get hurt."

"What? _You're _going to hurt me?"

"You know I'm being serious."

She doesn't respond immediately. It seems as though she's contemplating her next move.

"Look at me…" She almost whispers, her hands coming to rest on both sides of his face.

He doesn't really have any response. He fidgets slightly, his embarrassment showing somewhat on his face.

"You're not going to hurt me…" She whispers to him softly.

"You already know about the things that happen in this village. If you don't think I'm going to hurt you, everything else most certainly will." He was still resisting – but I knew it was only a matter of time…

She closes her eyes. "I'm not worried. Because you'll protect me. Because I'm going to protect you… You'll get through this. Trust me…"

"Protect… each other, huh?" In his mind, he was the only one who ever did the protecting. But here, someone else was offering to protect him in return. To protect him from the side of his life that tortured him so. He could withstand anything if someone could protect him – that's what he was going to think.

Maybe if I were stronger. Maybe if we were twins, we'd be able to get through our lives together. But that wasn't the case. And so, as desperate as he was, it was easy for him to cling to someone that was offering what he so desperately needed.

It's fairly obvious to note that they kiss after that.

I find myself feeling a little guilty.

I always took, but gave nothing back. But Nii-Nii didn't care. He never stopped protecting me, even if his heart begged him to stop. But now he had a way around it all. He could find solace in an almost complete stranger – because she had been the only one to offer him a way out. The only one to heal his shattered soul.

Why had it turned out like this, I wonder?

Perhaps Shion was just too childish. Maybe she'd never really understood what my brother was going through. Maybe those two really _couldn't _end up together.

But was _this _really love? Perhaps for Yomi. But for my brother?

It was only a matter of time, though, before I'd come to know the answer.

I decide to head home early that day.

And this is a bit of a silly question –

But can you imagine the look on my face when I find a quadriplegic pink haired woman hanging dead from a rope over my doorstep, and Jack the Ripper standing just in front of me with presumably one of her arms in his hand?

I didn't think so…

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

So there's a cliffhanger for you. How out of place was _that one_?

So yeah… This chapter is going to turn into more of a Satoshi study than anything else – by the third episode we'll be back in familiar territory, but until then… It's more of Satoko going nuts over Jack the Ripper, more of Satoshi going nuts over his surrogate girlfriend, and more of Teppei (and Rena's dad, by proxy, although that might be giving too much away) going nuts over how he's actually _not _safe from _anything_.

What will happen next? Probably more murders. Big surprise there, huh?

Anyhow, for those of you that had read End Dreamer and are actually following this (a number that has sadly been seemingly reduced to one), yes, I did adjust Yomi's age. Otherwise she'd be… Like, ten, I think? And yes, the visions so far are all End Dreamer related. For newcomers, the connection will be explained. In detail. So you won't be left out. Because it would be mean if it wasn't.

So yeah… For at least the next week, the writing train will still have no brakes. But come next week, I'll have to slow my updating again. Hopefully not to the one chapter every two months thing that I had going recently.

...

Hm... Is there anything else particularly mind bending I need to make mention of?

... I don't think so. So that's that. See you all next time.


	13. Glorious Days Chapter, Episode 2

_**Glorious Days Chapter, Episode 2**_

_Days Remain (May 20__th__, 1982)  
__Satoko Houjou_

From the moment all of this began, I knew things wouldn't end well. But I didn't listen to my own gut feeling – I kept staying the course and found myself in the middle of something I had no real concept of – there were secrets in our village. Secrets that are better off left uncovered forever. There's a reality that we all accept, but underneath that there's the truth –

And learning that truth is the same thing as throwing away everything and everyone you hold dear. Because in the end, nothing is as it seems to be and no one is who you think they are. For the longest time I rejected that idea – I didn't know what I wanted to believe. Only what I _didn't _want to believe. And in the end there was no way that I could've come to terms with any of it the way things were.

Twice now I have encountered Jack the Ripper. Twice now I have seen his face. Twice now I have shielded myself from the truth – twice now I have refused to acknowledge his face. And so the truth continues to allude me. But I'm an idiot. I'm just the biggest fool – I continue to chase after that truth, the only obstacle in my way being myself.

Jack the Ripper murdered a woman named Rina – apparently my uncle was seeing her on the side and, along with the rest of the members of his group of friends, had incurred the wrath of the Sonozaki family in such a way that their women would all pay the price first and foremost. Jack the Ripper was, at least from what I heard, the name of a serial murderer in England a very long time ago. The reason for such a name was, given this woman's death and the deaths of the three women that followed her, fairly obvious.

As a result of all of this, the group of men that were inevitably going to be left alive tried to call things off with their women. Most of them either broke up with them on their own or stupidly ignored the warning – but in the end each murder went unresolved and the only group of people that had any information on the nature of this killer at all was keeping quiet. If they brought attention to themselves the family would definitely have them all killed. At this point, all the authorities knew were the names of the victims and who they dated. There was no connection to the Blue Mermaid apparent to them, nor was there any sign of Jack the Ripper in any public report.

The stalemate would go on until they realized that they had nothing more to lose – they would reveal everything, and they would either live or die with their decision. And when that happened, everyone's eyes would be on this incident. The truth would be forced out of hiding, no matter how much it was twisted.

If there was anyone who was going to learn the truth, it was going to be me. I was the only one who would do it – the only one who would hold the truth and cherish it like a child.

But at the same time I feared it more than anything else.

I feared what the truth meant.

I feared what change it would inevitably bring about.

The truth would change everything. That much was certain…

After all… The truth reveals everything. The truth lays everything bare for all to see. The truth is uncaring. The truth is simply factual. Heartless. Relentless. Perhaps even evil, from a certain point of view.

The truth of Jack the Ripper was one thing… But my brother's own truth was something entirely separate. But both were just as cruel – just as heartless.

Shion loved him dearly. She wanted him and would do anything to have him. But at one point she came to believe that waiting patiently would yield the desired result – and at the same time she never realized that she knew so little about my brother to begin with. She knew he was kind, quiet, and protective. She had built an image of him in her head, ignoring that which she didn't want to see. She ignored the reality – that my brother was in pain and that he would never need her the way she needed him. He didn't need – perhaps he didn't even want – the sort of relationship Shion wanted for the two of them.

My brother needed to alleviate his pain. He needed not the sort of romantic love that Shion would provide – he simply needed to be loved. Emotionally, sexually – he needed an escape. He needed a bond where he could throw away the hardships of his life. Not embrace them proudly. That relationship Yomi offered him. That relationship he became addicted to and, once my uncle retrogressed into his harmless state once again as his world came crashing around him, he would give up hours of sleep to indulge himself in.

He wasn't different. He hadn't become corrupt. He hadn't been deterred in any way aside from the misguided nature of his completely conditional love. He was simply trying to survive.

After that incident outside the house, everything seemed to slow down. My brother's visions have continued. But he manages to move on despite them. The Sumidera family would never even question their daughter as to where she was spending all of her time. Yomi would continuously offer herself to my brother on an almost daily basis.

And with each passing day I would consider speaking to Mion, even if just once. But at that point I had already quit the club, as had Nii-Nii, and I didn't want any undue harm to come to either of the two siblings if my uncle was still keeping his eye on things.

At least that was what I would tell myself was the reason. But in reality, I didn't want to have to question who my friends were. I didn't want to see any other side of them. But I knew that they were involved in something darker than I could ever imagine. I knew they had both done things in the past, as did many other people. I knew that Shion's transfer back to Hinamizawa from St. Lucia was _much _more than a reassignment due to personal preference. I knew that Mion was involved in the Dam War to potentially great extremes.

But I didn't want to doubt the Mion and Shion I knew. I didn't want to think that they were simply hiding behind the walls they had built. I wanted to believe that there was no other side to them, to the point where I'd put the thought so much out of my mind that I'd created a fake excuse in its place.

Slowly, my reasons for hunting Jack the Ripper fall apart. I begin to wonder why I'm still trying – why I'm still going to Okinomiya on a daily basis to read the papers or to bug Oishi for all the public information he could give. Why I'm still caring enough to try.

We arrive at this very day – two months later, after everything seems to simmer down as I continue my daily visits to Okinomiya.

Even though there's no development and the victims so far being scum of the earth material in general, the streets of Okinomiya are still rife with chatter of the murders. At this point all the victims were from the city – that much the public knew. And because of that, every individual felt threatened. Every individual felt the need to console themselves into believing that they weren't targets. They were doing what I've been doing. They've been trying to hide themselves behind a flimsy reality by getting other people to accept that reality with them – although in my case the other person has long since abandoned the idea of protecting the twins.

He has no need for them anymore. He has no reason to feel like owing them anymore. He's trapped in his own world with another person already – I hope you see the pattern. Because this pattern is always the same.

It is only now that I begin to accept how stupid I am. It's not until I think things through that I begin to see the futility of all of this.

But searching for this truth has become the only thing I can do now. I can't protect my brother. I'd already failed at protecting Rika. I have nothing that I can give to other people – I don't have Mion's intuition or Shion's courage. I don't have Rika's gift of joy or Rena's unconditional love. I've nothing to give to anyone else. So this is all I can do. I can chase a phantom forever until I expire.

As usual, Oishi has nothing of value. I already know all of the facts by heart and through my uncle's frantic ranting I learn all the background details that I would ever need to know. At this point I know all of the likely targets – at least all of the targets that hadn't fled the city at this point. As part of my daily routine I make rounds to all of their apartments, sometimes during their working hours, sometimes when they're drunk out of their mind – sometimes even when they have their breakdown where they spill all of their secrets.

These women are scum, that much I know. Yet the moment one turns up dead I have to be there. I have to find Jack the Ripper again.

But even if I do it'll just be the same. I'll be exposed to a reality my heart can't handle. And I'll let the truth slip away again. And again. Until the family had exacted its revenge and everything would be over.

Today is the same as any other day. There is nothing of note happening. There is nothing changing. Time is marching on and before too long there would be virtually no purpose to any of this. But I can't stop. I can't pull myself away from that truth that's been shielded from me my whole life even though I'm so afraid of it.

Of course today, much like any other day, I'm secretly praying for something to happen. For something to change. For some affirmation that what I was doing still had purpose. There was nothing more mundane than what I was doing – but I was going to do it no matter what.

Every day is a step backward. Every day is an exercise in futility. Every day is one step closer to the end of everything.

I stop caring – but not long enough before I realize that one of the apartments that I check up on regularly has been broken into.

I find myself wandering into a stranger's home, defying all logic that most eleven-year-old children solely function on. There's signs of struggle everywhere – cracked dishes, overturned furniture, broken windows, the works. There is no sound but the dull wind blowing outside. There is no sign of anyone else being alerted to what had gone on in here either – the world outside this room is turning normally. It's only what's inside that feels the need to stop.

I wander into the bedroom – and there he stands, his back turned to me, standing over a pool of blood and several dismembered limbs. The woman herself was likely unidentifiable at this point, as had the previous bodies. Jack makes no move towards me – he simply stands there, looking away from me.

From this angle there's no way I can see his face. I'm not faced with that face of pure discord, so I can think coherently. I can comprehend what's in front of me. From what I can recall, his head was never bandaged the way it is right now. I can barely make out his hair beneath the heavy bands of bandage wrapped around his entire head, although it was too dark to tell exactly which color. His hachimaki is still wrapped around his forehead, although it seems more redundant now than anything else. In one hand is a black hilted katana with a shimmering crimson blade. In the other is what might have been the woman's head, although it was too obscured by the shadows to be identifiable.

He moves towards one of the broken windows rather suddenly, the shadows of the room obscuring his form.

"Wait." I speak to him for the first time. He stops his motion. Standing completely still. "Are you Jack the Ripper?" I ask something rather stupid, considering the circumstances. I know exactly who this person is. But perhaps there was sense in letting him know that.

He nods his head, although not particularly in my direction as he was still facing almost completely away.

I felt as though I had to know. If I had questioned myself and my reasons for the things I've been doing, then I had to question the person I was chasing. I had to know. I had to know why. And so I ask him.

"…Why?" Why was he Jack the Ripper? Why was he a killer? What purpose could he possibly have had, hunting down such worthless people? It couldn't have been for money. I couldn't have been a personal grudge. So why?

Why was it so hard to understand him? Why was it just as hard as understanding myself?

He doesn't answer at first. But eventually I hear his voice again. That dejected, quivering voice.

"Love." He speaks only one word, and with that he jumps out of the window and into the streets below.

Love?

Could he have been lying?

…No, that made no sense.

He was a killer. I'd seen him kill. He had nothing worth hiding.

But could one's love be so strong?

Could love be the sole driving force for such terror?

Perhaps it could have been.

After all – what did I know about love?

All I knew was how to misplace love and how to take advantage of it.

So who was he?

He was a human being capable of love. Love that transcended any kind of love that I could ever understand.

I had to understand. But I couldn't.

The Sonozaki family had hired a trained killer. A trained killer whose job was to kill people that had wronged the family. But that killer killed… out of love?

Was he being manipulated? Was the Sonozaki family manipulating Jack by exploiting his love?

That had to be it.

There was something afoot here.

Something I'd never considered before.

A problem I had to uncover the solution to.

I was finally able to make myself do it.

Later that day I return to the village. And I find myself in front of the Sonozaki estate. It takes some work, but I'm allowed onto the Sonozaki grounds.

I had to go straight to the source for this one. I had to resolve this dilemma – perhaps not even just for me, at that. I wander around for some time, drawing remarkably little attention for being a guest lost in what essentially equated to a mafia stronghold. This place was always hard to navigate, and usually I had Mion to follow around.

Mion and Shion weren't the source of any of this. That much I knew. They were incapable of this sort of thing. Especially Shion whose own concept of love was still in its infancy. I had thought about it earlier – someone of high rank in the family with enough experience and enough understanding of other people to be able to bend them to their will.

It takes some serious aimless wandering around, but I eventually find myself in a secluded section of the estate. It was a small one-room building hidden between two larger ones, completely obscured by the shade. I swallow hard, slide open the tatami door, and find myself in a room lit solely by candles hanging on the walls.

Sitting before me near a small table with what seemed to be freshly brewed tea was Oryou Sonozaki, as blind, old and decrepit as I remembered her being. I try to ignore how her right arm was now strangely missing as I clear my throat and announce my presence – or rather, as I would have, had she not beaten me to the punch.

"It's rather peculiar for a young girl like you to find herself in a place like this."

"…Sonozaki-sama, I'm here to see you."

"Ah… You could have just asked. I'm sure someone would have given you directions."

"O-Oh. I was –"

"You needn't explain." She states, waving her hand before picking up and sipping her cup of tea. "I can only assume that you are here to express concern about your friends. Mion and Shion to be particular." She was being rather curt – I'd remembered her as being a lot less straightforward.

"…Yes." I lie through my teeth. Obviously, coming right out and asking 'who is Jack the Ripper' would do nothing but draw suspicion. I had to get what information I wanted through means as indirect as possible.

"…Although now that I think about it, your family was recently targeted by some vile businessmen. My condolences." She doesn't sound particularly sincere, though.

"It's nothing to worry about…" I trail off. Oryou seems to want to say something but chooses not to say it.

She sighs with slight frustration. "Well, speak your mind. What is it that you _truly _wish to know?"

"I-I think I've already said I want to know about M-"

"If you are so concerned over that child, then why is it that you've been actively avoiding her?"

"…!"

"In truth, this would not have been brought to my attention if Mion had not become visibly distressed. She seems to think that you, along with your brother, have something fairly serious to hide… Of course I am fully aware of your circumstances, Mion seems to think that there's something more to all of it. Of course the poor girl would never confront you directly – after all, she could be wrong. I, on the other hand, see no consequences to asking you."

Consequences for _you_, perhaps.

"My brother… He started going out with someone." I try to play Yomi's involvement up as the big thing we were dealing with. "It's not as much about Mion as it's about… Shion. You see-"

She waves her hand. "That's all I need to hear. And you're here to ask about what, exactly? If she knows? If it's weighing down on her? I assure you that isn't the case."

"…That's good to know." I sigh with relief. At least Shion was in the dark about all of this, at least for the time being.

"…Of course if you wanted to know that you could've simply asked Mion. But yet here you are, coming to me to ask your questions. Surely, you want to know more. Maybe something those two would be reluctant to tell you."

I swallow hard. Her gaze was weak, but she was staring at me with the fierceness of a hawk.

"You seek answers, child… I owe your family enough to provide them. Ask whatever you wish. No matter what your concern may be." She sighs with defeat – she must've been blocked by my poker face, even though I was a matter of moments away from giving in. But now she offered to answer questions I might have had, no matter how extreme they may have been.

Of course she had no obligation or particular need to maintain such an offer. I still had to be careful.

"…I want to know who killed that woman with the pink hair." I didn't have to get specific – the more I did the more suspicious it seemed. This seemed to be the most indirect way of saying _I want to know who Jack the Ripper is. I want to know who you sent after my uncle's friends. _

"Ah, right, you found the body, correct?" She sighs. "The identity of such a person is an elusive thing – there are very few people I know of who could be cruel enough do what the person involved in that sort of incident."

"But… Don't you know who?"

She laughs slightly. "There's very little I know about such a thing… I'm sorry, but I don't know who is responsible." Looks like _she _was the one lying through her teeth now.

"Then…Then what about my uncle? Why is he… Why is he so afraid of the Sonozaki family?"

At this point I know she won't tell the truth. But that meant that whatever she told me would be completely off the table – and more importantly, the truth would likely be an offshoot of what she would say.

I knew the answer to this question – My uncle and his friends had stolen money. But I wanted to hear what Oyrou's lie would be. That way… That way when I ask my next question I'll be able to use her lying to my advantage.

She raises an eyebrow. "Your uncle?"

"He says he… He did something that you didn't like."

She grunts with amusement. "That may be a bit of an understatement. Your uncle isn't on particularly good terms with _anyone_, if my opinion has any merit."

"But what did he do?"

"He's stolen from many people. As much as I don't approve of it, this family is a symbol of fear in the eyes of such people. It's not surprising that he's come to fear us. Although I hope that you don't share a similar fear."

"N-No, of course I don't."

She laughs when my face turns pale. "I was only joking, child."

So _this _was her game. Offer a statement not entirely contrary to the truth while avoiding directly implicating the family of anything whatsoever.

My uncle made many people angry.

_My uncle angered the Sonozaki family. _

The Sonozaki family is reluctantly a symbol of fear.

_The Sonozaki family has done terrifying things and will only briefly hesitate to do so again._

"… I want to know then. Because my uncle seems to be so hung up over all of it…" I swallow hard again, my heart thumping faster in my chest. "…Who is Jack the Ripper?"

Instantly the somewhat lukewarm atmosphere in the room vanishes. I can almost feel a drop in temperature as Oryou seems to contemplate her response for a very long time. But she doesn't seem even remotely amused by my question.

"…Jack the Ripper, eh?" She smiles wryly. "Now there's a peculiar question." She seems to fall into silence for a little longer before finally offering some kind of an answer. "He's a man who lived a very long time ago, but I'm assuming you're not speaking of _that _Jack the Ripper."

"I'm… I'm asking about the one who's killing girls that my uncle knows."

"Ah, so there's your reason… I see. Then perhaps I can tell you what I know." She takes a deep breath. "There are people who take advantage of others. There are people that are hurt deeply by said people. Jack the Ripper is someone who brings those people to justice. We don't know who Jack the Ripper is, exactly, but he acts to right the wrongs of the world. That is all."

So _that _was what this was all about.

The Sonozaki family, taken advantage of. Jack the Ripper, sent to exact their revenge on those responsible.

"People can hurt other people in many ways. Very much in the same way that if Shion ever discovers Satoshi's lover her heart will break. Jack the Ripper deals justice to those that do such things intentionally." She muses something for a moment before continuing with an amused grunt. "The world of teenage love is relentless, it seems. Perhaps Jack the Ripper will go after your brother next?" She says with a somewhat haughty laugh. It wasn't funny – not by any stretch.

That's right.

I asked him why.

And he said it was because of love.

Love.

Love for who?

Love for the Sonozaki family?

Maybe love for someone part of the family?

Who could ever love enough to kill in the name of another?

But like with Shion love could be misguided.

Love could be taken advantage of.

I had learned all that I was going to from this woman – I turn to leave almost without another word, but as I slide open the door leading outside I give her a few parting words.

"…I don't know what you did to him. But if what you said is true, he'll come for you before too long, too… Please, for Mion's sake, be careful."

I don't wait for her response. But she speaks anyway.

"Hm… For Mion's sake, indeed."

Even the treasure chest of all secrets held nothing for me.

So now what?

What can I do?

Where can I go from here?

* * *

_The Recollection of Satoko Amasuka _

"So Jack the Ripper was being tricked by the family?"

"Well… Not exactly tricked, per se." I try to explain things in the easiest way possible. "Jack the Ripper has a need to bring people to justice. To right the wrongs of the world. The Sonozaki family was… exploiting that, for lack of a better term."

"Jack seems is looking more sympathetic than the victims now." She remarks nonchalantly, sipping her coffee.

I laugh. "It would certainly seem that way, wouldn't it? You're probably right, although I don't remember enough about the victims to know if any of them had redeeming qualities."

"I wouldn't think they did. Women like that tend not to."

"I suppose you're right. But I wonder, did you notice how –"

"How Oryou Sonozaki, despite all of her experience in this sort of secret keeping, came up with lies transparent enough for an eleven-year-old girl to see through?"

I laugh again. "Exactly. It helped that I knew more than I let on, but it's very likely that she knew that already."

"Did you ever find out why she made it so easy?"

"Not particularly, but I believe I've more or less reasoned her motivation out."

"But then what exactly was her motivation behind manipulating Jack in the first place if she seemingly intended to have you uncover the truth?"

"…I've got a few ideas, actually. But you need to hear the rest of the story first. Anyhow, we now skip ahead a little – to the end of May, to be precise. After the sudden reappearance of Jack, he vanished all the same. It got to the point where I wasn't all that sure if I'd ever see him again, but everything else around me suddenly started accelerating to the point where I couldn't focus on any of it…"

* * *

_Days Remain (May 24__th__, 1982)  
__Satoko Houjou_

Today I was in Okinomiya with Nii-Nii and Yomi, mainly because they had insisted that I follow them along today, although there wasn't any notable reason as for why. They'd done all of their extended interaction alone up to this point – the whole idea made me think that Nii-Nii was hiding something from me. And that sort of thing could never mean anything good.

Yomi evidently tends to drag him shopping whenever they meet in the city. She's tried to emulate as normal a life for him as possible, although even now I still can't tell if her motives are driven by unconditional love or something else entirely. Today was no different, although I helped to some degree. Of course the more I tried not to listen to them, the more talk of running away from everyone else together and moving somewhere far away got to me. I tried putting it all out of my system, keeping it out of my long list of immediate concerns. I was keeping a look out for something – anything at all, really – that seemed remotely out of the ordinary for this city. And at this point I could pick up on something odd happening on these streets with no trouble. But there was nothing worth noting –

That is, until later in the afternoon, while the unlikely couple was sorting through places to eat and I took off for a bit, wanting to at least invest some of today into my usual antics on these streets. In the process I end up wandering around somewhat familiar places, content with the little variation in the city around me.

Of course then it occurs to me that I'm being watched, even if from relatively close by. Usually at this time of day, when the sun has already begun to set, this area of the city was deserted – this was right by a private school that people usually cleared out of at night because of the various long-standing rumors about it, even if most of them were just baseless ghost stories.

Leaning against the side of the building, dressed in a coat that seemed too heavy for this time of year and relatively worn looking clothes underneath, was a young man, probably no older than my brother, with messy black hair and bags under his yellow eyes. I'd never seen him before, but he seemed as if he'd grown very accustomed to this place.

"Aren't you a little young to be wandering around here by yourself?" He asks, having noticed I'd noticed him.

"I'm with others." I answer curtly.

"Ah, I see… You looked like you were really deep in thought just now." He looks over me again, searching for something in me – I knew the look very well.

"…If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing here?"

"I'm just hanging around." He grins. "There's nothing more to it than that."

"Wouldn't you rather be sitting around at home?"

"Don't exactly have a home."

My expression softens slightly. He was a homeless person, but he was only a few years older than me. That sort of a life must've been terrifying – I'd never considered that someone my brother's age could end up on the streets.

"Don't you have any family?"

"Being born an orphan kinda works against you when it comes to things like that." He shrugs his shoulders. "…You ever been to the Fukuin House?"

"I've never heard of it."

"Ah. I see. Well, I guess it's better that you don't… Vile place, that is." He looks off into the distance, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"Why did you come here?" I ask him. I'm more curious as to why he's taken up residence on the side of the road instead of in an alleyway. Although alleyways were potentially much more dangerous.

"You can only get tips from the same people so many times. My old hole was a bit too cramped for my taste anyway."

"So you got tired and moved on?"

"Of course. You can't expect me to stay in the same place my whole life, can you?" He smiles again. "Things are always changing. Even if only bit by bit, everything changes some day. I mean, who knows where either of us will be a year from now? We could both be heirs to a billion yen. Or dead in the ground."

He raised a good point. I suppose that inevitably all things could change – people, places, everything was subject to that same change. But people feared change – I feared change too. My uncle's transition into his life of fear was harsh and cruel, but it was still this same sort of change.

"But doesn't that scare you?" I ask him honestly. Odd how I could still do that – and while talking to a total stranger, at that.

"Change is all a part of living. We don't really appreciate it all that much, but we don't have any right to deny it. After all, if things couldn't change, then where would we be now?"

"…I guess you're right."

"There's a lot that shouldn't _have _to change, though… Friends regrettably can grow distant or cut their tires with you, but –"

"But family's different?"

He smiles again. I then put things together – he'd had no family to begin with. He could never experience that sort of change. He didn't fear change at all, because he had nothing to lose. He could be sleeping under a bridge one night and be on a high class flight to Russia the next – there was no finality or consistency to a life like his.

I kept wondering how someone could live like that. But perhaps, in some arbitrary and forced way, it'd made him stronger. Perhaps without those ties he'd been able to see things differently. But that didn't stop him from wanting those ties.

By cutting your ties to society, it would naturally become harder to live in it. By having no ties to begin with, one could question if any norms applied to such a person at all.

…Ah, but right now, he's created a tie with me, hasn't he?

Maybe he was better for it.

"But how can you… Don't you ever think about the future? About _what _you could be doing? About _where_ you could end up?"

"…You see, for the longest time I've had this idea in my head. It's more like a dream, really – a dream where there's a world where people can welcome change. Where they aren't controlled by fear – where they act on their own. Fight their own battles. Make their own mistakes and take responsibility for their own actions. That's the only future I think about – realistically, I don't make an iota of difference… I don't think it's too hard to see that." He laughs somewhat quietly before sighing. "But the way we are right now – that's not possible. No matter how powerful the individual who thinks like that is, there's just no way people could follow such independent thinking. People become too wrapped up in their own world and rely on others – then you end up with people who have that ripped away from that, and what happens? Violence. Murder. You name the crime; it doesn't matter."

"…"

"The only future I can think about is a future where someone takes responsibility and tries to set things right, no matter what it takes. Where people aren't forced to change and they can live the way they should without removing themselves from their norm. I don't care who it is, it could even be someone as young as you."

"But… how do you set things right?"

"Ah, now there's why no one _has _come forward. Because no one so far has had the capacity to make that choice. After all, no one likes putting their normal lives at risk for something that they personally can live without. And no one is quite selfless enough to risk everything they have for others."

"Is that… really true?"

"The world is full of kindhearted people. But for every one of them there is a fundamental weakness – a flaw within them that is even more damaging than the weaknesses of cruel people." I could understand that – after all, Nii-Nii was one of those kindhearted people – and his weakness was taken advantage of by everyone around him, myself included.

Just from this one talk with this boy, I had a better idea of what my brother's relationship with Yomi really amounted to. If what he had said was true, there was more folly to my line of thinking than I ever thought was possible.

"But then can anyone do it? Can anyone make everyone happy? Where people don't have to change like that?"

"That's the million dollar question…" He trails off, yawning spontaneously. "…Think about it for a moment – if you could make two people love each other, no matter what you had to do, would you do it? How far would you be willing to go?"

"I see…" Even when it came to only two people, it seemed so impractical – I wouldn't do everything, nor would I do anything. I could say otherwise, but in the end saying so wouldn't amount to anything. And this only took two people into account – to change the entire world, or even just a small town or village would be that much more impossible. "…Is there really no way?"

"Well, there _is _a way. It's not as straightforward as simply ending everyone's problems, but in the end it achieves the same goal… I can tell that you've come to a point where you're unsure of how to progress. That you want to believe in something. In someone, perhaps. But you're having a hard time, aren't you?"

I have no response. I have no idea how he'd understood that so clearly just from the few words I'd spoken before.

"Don't forget what I've told you. Change is inevitable. But we reject change and it gets the better of us. You've come to a dilemma. But if you let yourself listen to _why _things happen the way they happen, you'll find your way through. There's a reason for everything – and the first step to coming to terms with that change is to understand that reason."

"…I'm not sure what to say."

He smiles again. "You're strong, that much I can tell. I'm sure that no matter what you're faced with you'll find some way to pull through. All you have to do is open your heart to the people that worry you the most – and then they'll open their hearts to you."

"…I don't think I ever asked for your name." I come up with some sort of response to that – in truth, I couldn't digest all of what he was saying so quickly. But at any rate, he seemed to believe I had enough strength to pull through all my troubles, even though he knew virtually nothing about me. If I ever needed a self esteem boost I'd definitely come back, provided that he hadn't already moved on somewhere else by then. "…Oh, I'm Satoko, by the way."

"Ah, right." He shakes his head in self admonishment. "Let's go with the latest trend – call me Shin. I guess my full name would be something like Shin Arisato. Or Shin Akinari. Something along those lines." It seems as though he'd forgotten his own last name – but he didn't feel the need to be tied down to one – he was free, and to a certain extent hardened and resolute. Not many in his situation, especially so young, could look at life the way he had.

"…It's nice to meet you." I respond, although at this point Shin had done much more than just meet me. He'd somehow peered into my soul and pulled out all of my facets one by one. But he hadn't taken them and stomped on them until I was forced to bend to his will – it was more like he carefully cradled each one in his arms, whispering gently to them.

From then on, Shin became a part of my daily routine, at least on those days that I spent in Okinomiya. I would stop by him every day, consistently offering him some spare change I had on me that day, which he would turn down each and every time I spoke to him. He would spend a great deal talking about so many seemingly useless facts – but I knew that each and every one of them was far from useless. In return, I would talk about just as useless facts – about myself, about my brother, about his relationship, about Hinamizawa in general. Things that didn't matter in the overall scheme of things, but things that mattered to us on individual levels.

I began to understand out initial talk more and more with each day I spoke to him.

These fundamental things about us shouldn't ever change. But sometimes they're forced to. Society becomes impossible to live in if these changes isolate us from others – many people have others to turn to, but many more, much like Nii-Nii, Shin, and to some extent myself, do not. And ideal world would be one where there would be no such thing as wit's end or inescapable situations. That was a world Shin dreamed of, and also a world that I began to grow fonder of the more I came to understand it. But at the same time that world was an impossible world.

It then occurred to me, one day when he was speaking of the bonds between people, and of the bonds among one's family, that there _was _a solution, just as Shin had always said there was. Of course the day I reasoned out the answer in its entirety and went to the city to tell him, he was no longer sitting on the side of the road near the school.

I was sad, but not particularly distraught. Because even though he'd moved on, he wouldn't change. Fundamentally, he would stay the same. He wouldn't change, no matter how much the world around him changed.

No matter how much one's life could change, there was always one way that it could all work out in the end – but my answer is for Shin and Shin alone.

All this time I've been distancing myself from everyone I deemed important to me. I was too afraid of them changing. I was too afraid of strain and conflict and wanted to see things for the way they always _were, _not the way they _are_.

I decided then – for that answer and that answer alone, I could face the truth for what it really was. I could come to terms with my brother's new relationship. I could live the way I should as long as I could still turn to people, even if those people were the ones that eventually turned to me. I could open my heart to Jack the Ripper, and in doing so learn the truth. But not the truth I'd been searching for all this time – the truth buried underneath it. The truth that means more than any truth police report or any conspiracy theory could ever account for.

* * *

_Recollection of Satoko Amasuka_

"Sounds like you fell head over heels for this Shin guy." The girl says nonchalantly.

I shrug my shoulders. "I suppose if you want to see things that way, then you could say that Shin was the first man I ever fell in love with. If I have to think about it, until I ran into my husband I suppose that he was quite literally the only one I ever felt such feelings for – although I see it more like the relationship I had with my brother, even if it ran significantly deeper."

"…Yeah, and that's called being in love with someone. I'm amazed someone else beat his benchmark, though." She was being as direct about this sort of thing as possible.

"How well do I know you again?" I ask her jokingly. Something seems to suddenly click in her head as she suddenly seems somewhat alarmed.

"O-Oh… Right, I suppose it's not my place to-"

I don't let her finish as I start laughing away, while she nervously looks around the diner to see if I'd drawn any attention. She seems to get a lot smaller as she quietly returns to her coffee.

"Anyhow, if you haven't noticed quite just yet, we're getting dangerously close to a certain point in time…"

She suddenly pays more attention to what I'm saying. "…Right, the Watanagashi Festival. And that year…"

"You seem to know where I'm going with this… Well, you can imagine how things went, but I suppose I have to share everything I know so…"

* * *

_Days Remain (June 13__th__, 1982)  
__Satoko Houjou_

Today was another day that Nii-Nii pulled me along with him to Okinomiya to meet up with Yomi – today we would be meeting up where we'd first met Yomi and her brother, Club Primavera. Over the past few weeks, Nii-Nii has been more distant than usual, even though I'd become more tolerant of his relationship with Yomi. I had to ask him about it at some point, but now certainly wasn't the time. At any rate, Yomi's insistence on leaving the village permanently seemingly hadn't done very much good, so he at least was still attached to Hinamizawa enough not to forsake it to escape his changing world.

Every day since my initial meeting with Shin, I've tried to bring myself to apologize to Nii-Nii for how cruel I've been. But I never really seem to have the chance to. I've seen less and less of him, especially given how my renewed interest in tracking down Jack kept me away from the village even more than it used to. I didn't see any particular need to rush it, however, only because it never occurred to me that Nii-Nii would ever refuse to hear me out if I needed to speak to him.

Today we end up sitting at the very same table we'd been sitting at when we'd all first met, although now Rai was nowhere to be seen. I question Yomi about her brother's whereabouts, but Nii-Nii quickly shut me up – there was evidently something happening on Yomi's end as well. I hadn't really considered such a thing before, but the whole event made me realize just how right Shin had been all along.

Even if the atmosphere was a little tense, we still had some amount of fun that afternoon. That is, until a fight breaks out at a table near the bar a few feet away from us.

Primavera had been getting unusual customers recently – there was a suicidal artist here awhile back, and from what I had heard a Yakuza meeting going on just next door only two short days ago. Today there was an unemployed man who had apparently picked a fight with an older Japanese war veteran. At the moment we noticed, Yomi took to cowering behind Nii-Nii while I just tried to distance myself from the two fighting men as much as possible.

"It's all because of pricks like you…!" The man shouts, his speech slurred by his drunkenness. "You bastards are getting all my fucking money… Your bullshit retirement plans and your post-war funding bullcrap. You know what happened to my wife? She had to marry some pig working for some IT department so she could feed our fucking kid!" He takes a swing at the veteran, who despite his age puts up a decent defense before being decked in the face. He falls to the ground unconscious and the drunken man staggers away from the bar, looking around the club.

"The same goes for all you bitches, too. You sell your asses and spend all the money getting fat!" He sways back and forth as he circles the club –

Before he approaches me. I try to back away, but before I know it he grabs me by the shirt collar. Nii-Nii tries to defend me, but the man overpowers him in an instant and shoves him off to the side, causing him to lose his balance and fall over. Yomi doesn't even try to help me – she goes to his side almost as soon as he drops to the ground.

"And you – you're just a little runt." His breath reeks of alcohol – for a moment, I seriously fear for my life. A man this drunk wouldn't think twice about snapping my neck with this many witnesses. "And you're eating here, at a high class place like this…! Who the hell did you have to w-"

In that moment, someone taps his shoulder. He turns around on the spot to swear at whoever had interrupted him, but finds nothing more than a fist meeting his face. He releases me and falls over, the punch having knocked him out cold.

"Someone… _please _get this man some medical attention." My rescuer speaks – in that moment I realize that it's Shin, standing over me, wearing the same clothing he always wore, his hair just as messy and his grin just as modest, with his hand stretched out to help me stand.

"S-Shin?" I stutter, the heat of the moment still passing over me.

"It seems that we've met again. Not under great circumstances, but better than nothing, I suppose."

I smile warmly at him as he helps me to my feet. "Where are you living now?"

"I found an abandoned shack down by the river. Took some work clearing out the pests, but I've got a place to last the winter, so it's worth it."

"That's wonderful." I'm about to say more, but Nii-Nii suddenly rises and seems to think that I'm still in some sort of danger.

"And who is this, now?" He asks, irritation and concern apparent in his voice.

"Ah, so _you're _the older brother."

"Satoko, who is he?"

"He's someone I met awhile ago… He's not dangerous. You don't have to keep glaring at him."

"When did you meet someone like this?" He still doesn't seem particularly trusting of Shin.

"'Someone like this'?" Shin narrows his eyes. "Oh, you mean a homeless person? I wonder, should the fact that I'm homeless mean that I deserve to be avoided like the plague?"

"Satoko, you don't know what pit this guy could've crawled out of –"

And that was all I was willing to take. Nii-Nii was being too generic and misunderstanding, but on top of that he was insinuating that Shin wasn't trustworthy just because he didn't have a home.

I talk back to him, but as I do so, Shin steps back and heads towards the counter, dropping a few coins before leaving through the entrance.

"Just because he's different from us doesn't mean he's some kind of crook. I thought you'd understand that." I scowl at Nii-Nii right before I take off after Shin. Nii-Nii calls out to me, almost pleadingly, but I don't pay him any mind.

I call out to Shin, who's already halfway down the road. He stops and turns towards me, allowing me to catch up.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think he'd be so rude."

He shrugs his shoulders, playing the whole thing off. "Your brother is a common sort. He's concerned for you to the point where his better judgment is driven by his concern. You must love him very much."

"O-Of course I do. But he shouldn't have said the things he said."

"He was right, at least from a certain point of view… After all, you _don't _know what kind of hole I crawled out of. But you don't see the value in such a thing… Hm, perhaps if there were more people like you, things wouldn't be spiraling out of control the way they are now."

"What're you talking about? Spiraling… out of control?"

He turns away from me, placing his hands in his pockets. "You see, I'm one with this city. I think I've told you that before – but anyhow, being so closely tied to the city, I hear murmurs. The people, much like that man who almost attacked you, are slowly become overcome by grief. The world is cruel enough to begin with, but the recent happenings in this city are starting to take a serious toll."

"What happenings?" Could he be talking about the murders? About Jack the Ripper?

"That man in there? He was married to the sort of wife most men dream of. No matter how bad things got for him, and no matter how drastically things changed, he could always fall back on her. That was how he coped with his change. But she was pulled away from him, and was forced to marry someone else with money to help provide for the small family they'd created. You see, when the world is cruel enough, it bites away at the very core of a person, man or woman."

"…So he was forced to lose everything? Even that small ounce of perfection he'd lived for…" I began to feel sorry for that man, even though he'd attacked me like that.

"And his wife? She died."

My eyes widen. "What?!"

"She was murdered… You see, she was condemned the moment she married that man, because she was forced to inherit that man's burden in exchange for providing for her son… And she was murdered, right here in the city, her right arm delivered to her former husband's doorstep."

"No…Then…" Then it _must _have been one of them. The missing arm – it was one of the women who'd sold themselves to my uncle's group of friends.

"Was it the war veteran's fault that his life had ended up the way it did?"

"No. Of course not…"

"No. Nor was it the responsibility of any of the women. The only one truly responsible was the one who killed his wife."

"So then…"

He sighs. "People lose their way very easily. And when they are dealt injustice, naturally they want revenge. There is no fighting the allure of revenge, no matter how kindhearted you are. People like that man, who are deprived of their norm and heartlessly ripped away from that which governs their base emotions, need to be guided, like sheep. They need to be shown a way through the darkness, no matter what that way is – otherwise, this city will become filled with men like that. Men who are lost and confused, unable to see any path forward. Think of the chaos that would ensue from that."

"…But…I know you've said this a thousand times, but can't _something_ be done? If people can't even have _that_, can't _something _be done to help them?"

"Something can… I think you already know what, though."

"…I do..?"

"…I'm about to ask something of you. You have no obligation to follow through, but if you do, then things will most certainly change. For better or worse, I can't say. But things will change. These people will improve."

"…I'll do whatever you want." I'd said it – I'd said that phrase that he'd condoned so many times before. But at the moment it didn't even occur to me.

"Find me Jack the Ripper. Bring me his head, or something of equal value."

I don't know how to react at first.

"But…But you-"

"I'm well aware of how impossible it seems… That is why something of equal value can be given up in turn."

Something of equal value…?

Then it hits me.

Evidence.

Evidence of Jack the Ripper's existence.

Or rather –

Evidence of the people who'd hired him.

Evidence against the Sonozaki Family.

"I…What difference will it make if I _do _find something?"

"If you find what I'm asking of you, I can take the truth you uncover and expose it for the world to see. I can make things better. I can start mending the hearts of the people in this city. But I can't do it without you. I don't have the capacity to do it alone."

"…I'll do it."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." It wouldn't have been any different from what I've been doing this entire time.

With that, we part once more, but we'd meet again fairly soon.

Realistically, catching Jack the Ripper was just as impossible as killing him. But the alternative – to bring the family to justice, for the sake of the people in this city?

Was it worth burning my bridges with both Mion and Shion?

I thought it might have been.

* * *

_Days Remain (June 14__th__, 1982)  
__Satoko Houjou_

The Sonozaki estate was a dead end no matter how many ways I looked at it. But as luck would have it, the right circumstances seemed to pile up all at the right moment. My uncle had been on the phone, cursing out the Sonozaki family yet again. But this time, his call was particularly interesting. He'd been talking about the Dam War – about the time when my parents had died. He happened to bring up something peculiar – something I'd disregarded when one of his friends had brought it up earlier.

He'd been going through the list of his friends – he'd confirmed that every one of them affected by Jack's killing spree had been part of his group at the Blue Mermaid. Furthermore, none of them were on particularly good terms with anyone who opposed the construction of the dam.

But was most peculiar was something he'd said in particular –

_Why the fuck didn't we join the Guardians? We'd be in the fucking clear if we told that little bitch 'yes', I just fucking know it…!_

The 'Guardians' – he was referring to the Onigafuchi Guardians, the group headed by the Sonozaki family during the Dam War. Apparently, all of the men involved in the incident were at one point scoped out as members of the force – but they all had declined.

If there was proof of that, there might have been something useful in that fact – but even then, how can I prove the family guilty of anything?

I then recalled what Shin had said – people need to be led down a path, no matter what that path is. I didn't have to reveal the truth. I didn't even have to speak the name 'Jack the Ripper.' All I had to do was provide a connection between the women, their men, and the Sonozaki family. A not so friendly connection, at that. I had to give the people something to come together to fight, and I only needed _some_ solid evidence to back the claim up.

It then dawned upon me that Mion was part of that group. And if uncle's slang was any indication, Mion had been the one to approach them. If there was any proof of their candidacy, she would have it.

And so here I am, at the Sonozaki estate, rummaging through Mion's room with latex gloves on, praying silently that she doesn't come home from school early today. This close to the Watanagashi festival, though, I doubted many Sonozakis would be roaming around the estate at all.

I almost give up – but with enough persistence I manage to come across an old and worn folder hidden under a pile of books in Mion's closet. It was a grey folder, ominously labeled with nothing but the word 'Guardians'. I open the folder – and before me is a list of names and personal details, a very long list at that, nearly five pages in length. And behind the lists were photos – many photos, at least 40, of the people mentioned in the list. My uncle had a photo, as did both of my parents, as did my brother, and myself, for that matter. My parents were of particular note –

A large, red X was etched onto both of their photos. My uncle was marked with a red slash, as was my aunt's and my brother's. Mine was left unmarked –

But there was a strange photo amongst them. It was a picture of what seemed to be a young girl. But the entire picture was scribbled on, so it was virtually impossible to ascertain what it had been a picture of.

This was all the proof I needed regarding the Guardians. This list could be dusted for Mion's fingerprints and I was smart enough not to touch the folder directly. But if I were to stay here any longer, I'd likely be-

In that instant I hear a loud creak, before some sort of a bang. I'm scared half to death –

I have to get out of here right now…

But the moment I move I hear a door slide open…!

It's not the door to this room, but my heart stops all the same. I quickly place everything back where it had been and I head for the door. My heart pounds in my chest as I contemplate opening the door – what if someone was out in the hallway right now? I couldn't afford to be caught now…!

I eventually decide that it's now or never – if I was going to wait any longer, I might as well have waited for Mion to come back home and open the door herself. I slide the door open slowly, peering out into the hall as I do so – there's no one around. I quickly leave the room, being sure to hide the folder under my clothes. I remain as composed as possible as I leave the building and follow the path towards the exit. I leave without seeming too suspicious, but I wait until I'm halfway down the street to finally sigh with relief.

This was certainly harder than I'd expected it to be.

What was next…?

Now all I had to do was find some file of the Blue Mermaid's past reservations – I'm almost certain my uncle and all of his friends, and very likely many of the victims would be found listed there.

I decide to finally pay a visit to the place in question.

The Blue Mermaid itself was relatively out of the way, but it was in a bad enough section of town that wandering around here alone, even in the middle of the day, was a recipe for disaster. The night club was closed down at this time of the day, but it didn't take much work for me to get inside – the door was actually unlocked, so I had to assume going in that someone was inside.

Not this again…

I sigh, take a deep breath, and slowly work my way into the club. The lights are all off, aside from one light in the far back room. I heard rummaging from that direction, so I had to move about while avoiding alerting whoever it was that was in that room at all cost. I couldn't just sit around and wait for things to happen – I could find myself in a situation where I wouldn't be able to leave.

Where would they keep a record of past reservations?

Perhaps by the cash register?

I move towards the register as silently as possible. I almost move out of step and make a sudden sound, but I manage to recover –

That is until my foot slips and I fall over, creating a loud bang as I hit the floor.

But the rummaging continues, as if the person inside hadn't heard me to begin with. I still don't exhale, not for a second.

I eventually make it to the register – as I'd predicted, there was a large book on one of the shelves hidden on the other side of the counter. I open it and silently flip through –

It doesn't take much work. On almost every other page, there was a listing for a reservation made in my uncle's name. It was likely that many of the other entries had names of his friends. With this book, I could tie the victims to the Sonozakis through the club. This meant that I now could tie together everyone involved to the family –

Of course my victory is somewhat short lived, when I turn around and find a large pit-bull, a little more than half my size, staring me down and growling at me.

My eyes widen – it'll start barking any second now…!

I bolt towards the door. The pit-bull roars and starts chasing me. I briefly hear a human voice before I pull the door open and slam it shut almost in one motion.

I take off down the road, the book in hand. I find the sun starting to set, so I had to be quick about this – if I wandered around for too long I could get into some real trouble…

This was enough – with this, I could do it. With this the Sonozaki family would be implicated for the murders. Even if there was no proof of the crimes themselves, the people will think they are the killers. They will have something to stand against – and their lives would improve, even if only a little bit.

Even as I prepare to put all the pieces together, I still have to ask myself.

Is this really worth it?

Even if I left no trace of having been in Mion's room, I was let into the estate that day by the usual guard. It would not be particularly difficult for someone to realize that I was the one who'd broken into Mion's room and stolen from her.

But I don't want to see anyone like that man ever again.

I don't want to see people suffer. Because they'll make other people suffer – like how my brother is suffering.

I decide to think about the consequences later. I have to do this – I've already gone too far to turn back.

Of course as I make my escape from the Blue Mermaid I end up taking several shortcuts and travel through some shady back alleys –

And suspended by a rope from a fire escape in one of the alleyways, her head unnaturally twisted, blood dripping from her neck, and her right arm missing was Yomi, a pool of her blood forming on the pavement beneath her.

I gaze upon her in horror.

Jack had struck again.

But…

Yomi….?!

Why her?!

I almost throw up – but I couldn't. I couldn't be seen. I had to get away. I couldn't leave any trace of myself anywhere.

I have to leave without telling anyone about her. I'm sure someone will find her in the morning anyway.

I head off down the road as my future becomes more and more uncertain with each step.

* * *

_Days Remain (June 20__th__, 1982)  
__Satoko Houjou_

It was the morning of the Watanagashi Festival. The village was charged for the first time since the last festival, and it promised to be as eventful as last year – of course the murders in Okinomiya had failed to stop, and the Oyashiro Curse was bound to strike someone again this year, but aside from that children and adults alike could enjoy themselves, with the adults secretly praying that they wouldn't be targeted while the kids didn't have a care in the world.

Yomi's body was found the morning following my discovery of her – she was officially declared the seventh victim in the serial murder case based off of her wounds and missing right arm.

Her right arm didn't go missing for very long. Nii-Nii found it on our doormat the following morning. It's needless to say that he didn't handle that very well, especially considering how around the dismembered arm's wrist was a wristband he'd bought Yomi some time ago.

I'd never seen my brother relapse so badly before – he took Yomi's death far worse than I could've ever imagined he would – he didn't come out of his room for three days. It came to the point where Shion came to visit and he openly vented his anger on her. I haven't seen Shion since, but there's very little chance that she didn't get the message.

Of course right around this time I'd already given Shin the material he'd needed – evidently he was good friends with a member of the Okinomiya police department, and in exchange for more permanent living conditions he said he was going to help them plan a long term propaganda scheme against the Sonozaki family, mainly to ensure that they would remain the object of despair for the people of the city and that he would be able to consistently give his all to that cause. The police were evidently desperately searching for some way to close this case and leave the public satisfied, even if the evidence was circumstantial and had nothing to do with the murders themselves, and so Shin was able to get what he wanted and a little more on top of that, having been able to secure himself a high ranking position at the City Hall's offices. I felt happy for him, at least to a certain point. Realistically, he didn't care where he lived, but if he was going to live out his new purpose he had to take these sorts of measures. He told me he owed me everything and that he'd find some way to repay me for what I'd done. He'd taken full responsibility for the retrieval of the evidence and I was essentially left completely out of the equation.

My uncle had finally come out of his rut. But just as soon as he had he'd felt the need to take his anger out on Nii-Nii again.

That was last night. This morning, I was going to head to the offices to speak to Shin – there was one final piece of evidence I had to give him, that being the Guardians roster. I'd put together contact information and other such things tying my uncle and his friends together the night I'd returned from the Blue Mermaid, but had neglected to bring the roster with me.

I meet Nii-Nii in the hallway on my way out.

"Going to see that guy again, huh?"

"What of it?" I speak somewhat coldly. I was still trying to come to terms with what I'm going to put my friends through and I wasn't in the mood for Nii-Nii being a moron.

"You might as well start living with him."

"You're an idiot." I tell him before I walk out the door.

I arrive in Okinomiya at roughly midday – there was a strange amount of traffic, so the bus took a little longer to get to the city than it normally did. I manage to find the offices in question without too much difficulty. With the roster in hand, I head to the room that was specified to me.

The first thing I noticed about this building was how small it seemed from the outside, but how huge it was on the inside. I try not to pay it too much mind as I find myself in a small room, standing across from Shin, sitting behind a desk, wearing a white lab coat and glasses.

I find myself laughing a little. "I didn't know you needed glasses."

"I never told you otherwise, did I?"

"I guess you didn't." I say, shrugging my shoulders as I drop the folder on his desk. "…This has to do with the Onigafuchi Guardians… It was a group made during the Dam War in my village. My uncle and all of his friends are in this listing – all of them turned down the group, which coincidently enough is Sonozaki operated."

"I see… I'm aware that two of your closest friends are Sonozakis… This must have been hard for you to obtain for more than obvious reasons…" He expresses his concern, as usual.

"It took a lot of work, but I made myself do it… I hope it all works out in the end."

"_Of course _it will." With that, he pulls me into a small embrace. "…Without you, this never would've happened. You've done more than I could've ever imagined. Thank you."

I smile. "It's okay… Really, it's all okay."

We eventually part and I head towards the exit. "There's a festival in my village today. I should probably get back as soon as I can today."

"Ah, I see…But don't hesitate to visit."

I smile again. "I'll be back one of these days." I turn to leave, before something suddenly occurs to me. "…Ah, right. I don't think I ever got your name."

I don't have to see his face to know that he smiled then. "Ah, right." He shakes his head in self admonishment. "Let's go with the latest trend – call me Saturn. I guess my full name would be something like Saturn Asbestos. Or Saturn Anne. Something along those lines."

"…It's nice to meet you." I speak before leaving the room.

I make my way to the bus stop, planning to head straight back to the village. The city is crowded at this time of day – I was knocked over by some moron carrying a huge teddy bear, but luckily I wasn't scraped up too badly. Would've liked that teddy bear, though.

I wait on the bus as I contemplate what I'm going to be spending the day doing. I figure that I might as well make my grand return to the club, considering how I've been so distant from the others because of all of this business. But it was all going to end, at least from some perspective. I had no way of knowing if Jack would be sent out to kill anyone else, but once the Sonozakis were cast in that suspicious light, the killings would likely stop. I hadn't seen Rika, Rena, or any of the others in such a long time.

I notice that there isn't anyone on the bus aside from me – I consider asking the driver what the holdup was, but eventually someone else finally boards and we leave. I notice that only now was it the scheduled departure time for the bus – I was just so anxious to finally return to my norm that I was getting a bit impatient.

"Mind if I sit here?" A hoarse voice suddenly rings out. The owner of the voice doesn't wait for my response and they sit next to me. Why, I wonder, would a total stranger sit next to me when the bus was literally completely empty otherwise?

I look to my side –

And sitting next to me with his hands in his lap is Jack the Ripper, in that same uniform, although now with a hood up to conceal the bandages wrapped around his head.

He senses the hairs stand up on the back of my neck almost immediately. He lowers his hood, not that it mattered all that much as I still couldn't see his face.

"There's no reason to be alarmed. It's all over now."

"W-What do you mean?"

"You may have delayed the storm, but that is all you have done – you have delayed it, and not for very long at that. The tension between the village and the city will grow before it explodes in pandemonium – and in very due time, at that."

"…I made my decision. I'm willing to live with it."

"Are you, now? Are you willing to live, knowing what chaos you've created?"

"…If I have to be punished, I'll accept my punishment."

"…Very well, then. Your path to ruin begins today… Do not falter, and… Perhaps we will meet again, at world's end."

With that, he stands up. "This is my stop." He calls out to the driver. The bus comes to a stop and Jack raises his hood and steps off the bus, vanishing into the distance as the bus drives away.

I didn't understand him at that moment.

But when I returned home, to find police cars surrounding my house, everything came crashing down around me.

Everything is as you've already come to know it as. The Watanagashi of 1982 – one goes missing, one dies. My aunt, the latter. My brother, the former.

But now, with Jack's warning, I know it is only just the beginning.

And I find myself wondering for the first time…

_What have I done? Was it the right thing to do?_

In the end, even if I'd created a norm for everyone in that city –

It didn't change the fact that mine had been heartlessly ripped away from me. I couldn't turn to Saturn for help because of his new job, and I certainly had no family members to turn to, nor would I ever again.

And no one cared –

No one aside from my friends, who I couldn't even bring myself to speak to.

In the end I find myself falling back on a bond I wasn't even sure still existed.

But I find myself standing outside the Furude Shrine in the middle of the rain a few days later.

And I find Rika.

And I tell her everything.

And almost completely wordlessly, she embraces me.

"You could've come to me. From the start, you know." She says softly as I let every pent up emotion out all at the same time. She says something so obvious. Something so inherently true that I felt like a fool for failing to understand it.

"I know… I'm sorry…" I don't know how many times I repeated those words that day.

But from then on, I'd finally been able to experience it.

The answer – the solution that I'd come across. The solution to all the world's problems. The way that someone can move on and deal with everything the world can throw at them without fear.

You create your perfection. You create a small world of your own and call it perfection. And all you need is one other person to make it. All you need are two people to create a whole world – a norm. A part of your life that will never change. Something that you'd be willing to give up everything you had to protect. Saturn's dream was to make these worlds last. And so I'd live that dream to the best of my ability.

From that day on, I lived at the Furude Shrine with Rika, slowly picking up the pieces of myself, until that fateful June the following year…

* * *

_The Recollection of Satoko Amasuka_

The girl falls silent for a long while. She usually had things to say whenever I stopped the story like this, but here she sort of took on a very pensive silence.

"Come on, now…" I eventually start teasing her. "This isn't even the depressing part yet."

"I'm well aware of that." She sighs. "I didn't expect… someone like Saturn Anne to be so… understanding."

"Hmm… Well, given the events of that June, I'm not surprised that you'd think so. But he was a wonderful person – it was just the people around him that might have changed him."

"But…About Rika… What exactly drew you back to her?"

"Simply put, she was the only one I could sympathize with. After all, in terms of what Shin-chan had said, Rika was in a situation that mirrored my own, down to the last detail. I'd finally come back down to earth, you see, and I realized that I'd damaged my bonds beyond repair while all along I was trying to preserve them. Rika was the only one I could turn to in that time."

"I see… But did the Sonozakis ever implicate you?"

"I don't believe they ever did. But at the time I couldn't bring myself to look at either of the twins."

"Understandable…But what happens next?"

"Don't you know?" I say, laughing slightly. "Why, the Watanagashi Festival the following year happens. And I'm sure you're aware of where that goes."

And with that I continue my tale as the final act begins…

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

I swear, like, twenty times over that the next chapter won't be this long… Pretty much the only reason why this chapter ended up being this long is because pacing wise it seemed more coherent to end the 1982 stuff in this chapter, leaving all of Episode 3 to cover 1983. So yeah, a _lot _got crammed in here, so I won't be surprised if a lot goes right over your head the first time. Sorry about this.

Anyhow, Episode 3 is already mostly finished. That should be up sometime next week. So, until then…


	14. Glorious Days Chapter, Episode 3

_**Author's Note**_

I'm going to go right ahead and confess that this chapter almost didn't happen. Not that I was going to drop the story altogether or anything like that, but it came to the point where I'd finished this and I had a whopping _25,000 _words and I was considering actually rebooting the entire arc because of how poor the pacing was in the first two episodes.

This chapter is basically a drastically altered version of that. The rest of it is being retooled for arc 4, the fate of which is something I need to bring up at the end of this chapter.

So yeah, going into this chapter – if you thought at any point in this story that things were over-the-top before now, you were wrong. _Dead wrong_. _This _is where things get over-the-top.

So that being said, enjoy.

* * *

_**Glorious Days Chapter, Episode 3**_

_31 Days Remain (May 31__st__, 1983)  
__Satoko Houjou_

There was a time when I'd believed my fate to be inescapable. I had thought that the only path I had to take in life was the endless road through my uncle's abuse – but I had Nii-Nii to save me from that. And all that time I'd hid from that simple truth – I chose to ignore Nii-Nii's sacrifice because I'd never really known his suffering at all. When I lost him, it was all my fault. There was never anything I could do about it, or so I had told myself over and over again.

When Nii-Nii disappeared, I became so afraid of my uncle I had no choice _but _to move in with Rika – I was going to drive myself insane, and in the end I wouldn't be able to have an even remotely peaceful life under those circumstances. My uncle ended up moving out of Hinamizawa altogether, though, with my aunt dead and the Jack the Ripper case still unresolved with the Sonozakis simply becoming 'highly suspicious' as opposed to 'infallibly guilty.'

If I couldn't understand a simple truth like that, how could I ever have hoped to bring Jack to justice?

I could finally have something that resembled a normal life – but the way things concluded, was this the sort of solution I'd been looking for? A solution where all I'd done was stop thinking and take the easiest way out? It was a solution, at any rate, but it was a solution that had cost far more than what needed to be given up.

All the while I'd been obsessed with the idea that subduing Jack was impossible, even if I'd gone to extremes to prove that it wasn't true. But the moment I'd set everything in stone he'd just appeared out of the blue, revealing himself to me as casually as possible. He wasn't larger than life. He wasn't some exotic criminal who covered every loose end. He didn't give off any indication of the sort – he was a hired killer and nothing more. There had to have been something. Something I missed. Something I overlooked. Something I wasn't looking for that presented it to me at some point.

But it was too late now. Shin was now dealing with things in Okinomiya. He'd make the best of things, even if the situation was gradually getting worse. I just had to go back to the way things were.

And so I did. I went back to school and spent as much time with Rika as was possible. I tried to act as though I'd been able to recover from all of it, even if the truth was something entirely different. There was nothing more that I could do – everything was said and done. The rest was in Shin's hands. So I had to make the most of the respite I'd created.

But like Jack had said, it was all only temporary. The end would soon come. And being how I was back then I didn't realize just _how _soon the end was going to be. I could almost feel it, though, when the tension reached the breaking point. I'd been in and out of Okinomiya with Rika and the others multiple times over the year that followed – I didn't even have to look very hard to see that the positive change that I had caused was starting to undo itself. It was always somewhere in the back of my mind, but as a whole year went by after everything had dissipated I made myself forget, little by little.

It was the end of May, right around the time tension in the village would start to build up. The Oyashiro curse had proven its own existence the last few years and chances were it would go on, at least from the villagers' perspective.

The only thing I was concerned with at this time was the notion that there was now time – time for everything I'd forced myself to shun while I'd been chasing after Jack. I spent the bulk of my days up to this point with Rika, and today wasn't particularly different in any notable way. There was some more sameness today, just as there had been the day before and the day before that. Rika had convinced me to let everything that had happened go – she'd done the same to preserve her sanity after her parents' deaths, and all it took for me to do the same was to follow her lead.

But even then I noticed – everyone seemed a little bit more hollow after Nii-Nii vanished. There was a certain charge he'd given our club, likely because he was the only boy that had ever been a part of it. Eventually it just became a normal facet of things, but I still kept note of it. Every time I'd wonder how things would be different if Nii-Nii were still around, I'd be pulled off somewhere by Rika, though – it was like she could read my every thought, and it was something she took advantage of all the time. I managed to go on for long enough without any of those hypothetical situations hindering me much almost completely thanks to her.

Today we were actually waiting on the Sonozaki sisters for once, as opposed to the other way around as was usually the case. There wasn't much to do around this time without them, considering how the Watanagashi festival wasn't that far off. Some of the kids at school that weren't burnt out because of the sudden conversion to summer were talking about that new game one of the stand runners had apparently teased the other day based on Mion's favorite TV show, the adults seemed to be occupied with who was going to spend however much money and when – it was all typical of our village around this time, as was the twins' habitual consistency of being late for everything. The family was much more involved in the brighter side of the village than what seemed appropriate – especially considering what had only temporarily resolved itself not that long ago.

But at the time I didn't take any notice of any of it. I was just glad that we were all having fun on a consistent basis.

While we waited, Rika pointed out every stray cat that happened to cross our path whenever I stopped paying attention to what she was saying to let my mind wander. It was very typical of waiting around for things with Rika – of course it _would _get a little annoying after she mistook a squirrel for a cat for the seventh time that afternoon. But I could always manage.

Eventually the twins come into view in the distance, both of them carrying bags full of things. Rika does the greeting as usual while I indulge in my bad habit of reading Shion's face for some sign of distress – at this point I just did it purely out of habit, although back when Nii-Nii had disappeared I found myself doing it almost twice a day.

"Mark this as the last time I do anything for that Oni-baba when we have club things to get done." Mion says with a sigh.

"Don't act like it was anything bad. You remember how we had to do all of this in one night last year, don't you?" Shion points out something that Rika found funny enough to laugh at – I suppose I _did _sort of ignore everything pertaining to the festival last year, so I was out of the loop for this one.

"Rena's not with you?" I decide to question that – getting into one of Rika's huge stories wasn't something I was in the mood for.

"Nope, she's taking care of our other matter of business today."

Shion looks confused for a moment before her expression lights up. "Ah, right. I was wondering why she looked so nervous this morning."

This was wonderful – there were _two _things brought up within a few seconds of each other that I knew nothing about. But Rika at least seemed to be in the dark about this one – I couldn't imagine what would make Rena all that nervous, though. I suppose that I'd find out before too long.

"I'd be willing to bet she screws it up." Mion breaks her silence on the matter. "She was never good at dealing with guys anyhow."

"Ooh, is Rena asking someone out on a date?!" Rika suddenly lights up. I find myself more curious than I'd ought to be – oh, who am I kidding? This is the kind of stuff I live to sabotage. I've ended enough relationships abruptly in the past, but they usually didn't involve people over the age of ten. Or involve anyone from the club. I wasn't stupid enough to even try something like that.

Rika and I start questioning them both immediately, but they seem to brush everything off. For a short while, I feel some of my old flare back in action – it was being able to aimlessly interrogate the twins this way that made everything feel that much more natural.

"Look, it's really not that important." Mion finally resigns with a sigh. "Rena's gone to help someone move into their house. Two parents, one kid, a son, roughly our age."

Rika sighs with disappointment. "Another old kid… Oh well."

I snort at that. "Come on, like you'd go after anyone. You're ten."

"I thought Rika's smile was supposed to make anyone who looks her way fall in love with her." One of the twins, I didn't pay attention as to which, eggs me on while Rika tries on her million dollar smile. All she had to do was follow up with a well timed 'nipah' and just about anyone our age would fall head over heels for her.

"In any case," I clear my throat. "Rena already has a head start on both of you." I'm not even fully facing Mion, but I can almost feel the radical drop in temperature as she falls silent. Shion doesn't seem to care anywhere near as much.

"I'm not interested." Mion speaks flatly. Shion only laughs at her. "H-Hey, what's so damn funny?"

"You're about as bad a liar as they get." Shion then drops her bags on the ground next to her and walks off down the road. "If you're not interested, then you can bring those home with you. I'm gonna go check things out."

"There's no way your serious…!" But as Mion speaks in retaliation, Shion is already down the road. "H-Hey, you get back here!"

With that, Rika grabs me by the arm and we follow Shion down the road, leaving Mion to her own inadvertent penalty game.

Evidently, Shion already knew the way to this new boy's house – something that he'd probably be better off not knowing if we even got acquainted with him any time soon. The house we were headed to turns out to be fairly big – the boy's parents must've been at least somewhat wealthy if they could afford a place like this.

Once we got close enough, we finally took notice of the people standing outside the house – one of them was familiar, in all likelihood Rena, while the other wasn't that much taller, if taller at all. In a few moments I realize that this was the boy that we'd been talking about.

As we continue to approach the house, a stray cat suddenly crosses our path, and as usual Rika has to chase after it. I try to calm her down, but as I do so Shion seems to start talking to herself.

"Anne was right. The resemblance _is _uncanny." She looks at me, realizing that I might've heard her. "It's settled. If he ever joins the club, he's wearing my uniform."

Rika laughs while I stare towards the boy, somewhat puzzled –

And then what she had said registers.

We get close enough where Rika and Shion both greet Rena.

I finally get a good look at the boy's face –

He's the spitting image of my brother – the only thing that made them physically different at all was the color of his hair and his eyes.

…But at the same time –

Haven't I seen _this _boy before?

But where?

"Ah, right, I was just hearing about you." The boy speaks in reply to whatever it was Shion had said. "I'm Keiichi Maebara. It's nice to meet you."

At any rate, his name wasn't familiar. I decide to put it behind me before I introduce myself as casually as possible. I got the hint that acting weird was a no-go for today, especially considering how we know virtually nothing about this boy yet.

Rena seems very comfortable around Keiichi, at any rate. That had to mean something at least. Of course it was very likely that she'd seen my brother in him right away as well – that could've had something to do with it.

After the others had finished introducing themselves and were about to head back home, I decide to just straight out ask him about it.

"Say, Keiichi-kun." I try to act as friendly as possible. "Have you… Ever been in this village before? Or maybe in Okinomiya?"

"Hmm…" He mulls over my question for a few seconds. "Not in the village, that much I can tell you. I might've been to Okinomiya once or twice, though."

He might've been in the city? Then I must've seen him there. But where…?

I take too long trying to come up with something else to say and he turns away from me. "I'd hate to cut this short, but I kinda have things to do."

"O-Oh, right. Sorry."

"It's not a big deal." With that he disappears into the house, leaving me in an awkward moment.

I decide that questioning something so stupid wasn't a particularly smart idea, especially if I was going to make a big deal out of it. I leave things at that and head home, not entirely sure of what had made me ask him that question in the first place.

Maybe I'd just wanted to hear him talk again. Just to make sure that there was no chance of him being my brother. Because I didn't want to have to go every day looking at him and being reminded of Nii-Nii. I don't think I could put up with that, not after everything.

I put it all out of my mind – I wasn't supposed to be thinking about these things anymore. Nothing good would ever come of any of them.

I return home and after a usual evening I fell asleep, letting all of my concerns and extra baggage go for the time being. If there was anyone in the world who could pull me out of even a potential rut it was Rika – if things were the way they used to be, there was no chance in hell that I'd have been able to pull through the way I have.

But there was always something – always something that I tried my best never to question, but it was always something in the back of my mind, along with the rest of my troubles.

Tonight was like most nights living with Rika. Rika always seemed to be more hyperactive when I was going to stay put for an extended period of time – every night she would almost burn dinner, almost trip and fall down the stairs, almost chase a cat out our window, almost do a lot of things that some people would find absolutely hilarious provided that she didn't actually do them. I could always stash my concerns away, no matter how small they were, every night, just because of how much fun Rika always was.

But at the same time, every night, although half the time I'd be out cold and wouldn't notice, she'd always seem to vanish.

But at the same time, she wouldn't exactly leave the house. Or even leave the room. Her radiant presence would just spontaneously die, even if she was still sleeping soundly right next to me. Sometimes she'd get up, probably to use the bathroom or something. I'd be too tired to see what she was up to – it wasn't as though Rika would spend all night drinking at a bar or something when I wasn't awake.

Tonight I actually woke up very early in the morning, around one, perhaps. I wasn't exactly startled, but was curious to know why she'd vanished again – perhaps it was the event with Keiichi earlier in the day that had set me off, but I was somewhat wide awake at an hour where I'd normally be out cold.

Rika was sitting by the window, a bottle of wine in one of her hands, gazing out at the moon.

The look on her face was just so vacant – it was as though I was looking at someone entirely different who just looked a lot like her. I felt as though her lack of presence at night was a result of whatever it was that she was doing right now.

"Rika…?" I speak, my voice still somewhat slurred.

She doesn't respond to me at first. But eventually the silence is too much, even for her. "You're up early." There was clearly something wrong with her voice – it sounded radically different from what her voice normally sounded like.

There was something seriously off here – something I should've noticed a long time ago.

"Tell me something, Satoko." She continues speaking. "Did you give my question any thought?"

"What…question?"

"What would you be willing to do…" She takes a swig of the wine before continuing, "…To make two people love each other?"

I vaguely remember this line of questioning – it was back on Bloody Christmas. I didn't quite have a response for her then, and I don't have one now.

"It depends." I answer seriously.

"Depends on who you want to love each other?"

"I guess."

"…What if you had to make _everyone _love each other? What if everyone needed one other person to confide entirely in?"

"Would that be more like 'what would you be willing to do to make everyone happy with their lives'?"

"I guess so…" She sighs. "The point is people hate each other. People live without love, and that destroys them."

"So is love the source of all our problems, then?" I wasn't exactly sure why Rika would be thinking about something like this so seriously. But right now Rika wasn't being normal – not in the slightest. So I couldn't just brush off what she was saying. If she was like this right now, then this whole topic had scarred her somewhere deep down.

The conflicted look in her eyes only then reveals itself to me – and I realize almost instantaneously that I'd done it again.

I'd taken advantage of supreme kindness. I'd used it to hide all my problems away and failed to notice how the person protecting me had been slowly rotting away underneath. But this time I'd noticed it before it was too late.

"There are people who live without love. There are people who live always with the fear of losing it. There are people who desperately search for it even though they'll never find it. At the same time there are people who live with love that are oblivious to it all. Even to love itself." Somewhere in her monologue she'd described me perfectly. But on top of that, she'd described the dilemma I was faced with. People live without love. People live desperately trying to defend their love. People will be at their weakest when love is taken into account.

Love is gentle, love is kind – but love is the one true weakness that we have. The people of the city, and to just as large an extent, the people of Hinamizawa and even Jack the Ripper were all at the mercy of it. It was because of this vulnerability that people like the man who'd attacked me at Primavera and people as completely closed off as Shin exist.

"Then how do you do it? Never mind if you wanted to – _how_ would you do it?" I eventually ask her.

"It's impossible to unite the world. Because one can only know a finite number of people in their lives. It's probably impossible to unite an entire city. Or even a place as small as our village." She sighs again. "But surely, it must be possible. To bring together a group as small as ours… isn't it?"

"You mean the club?"

"But even then, it seems so impossible. Can't even just the five of us be happy? Can't there be some way to save _just five of us_?"

"What're you saying? We're all fine the way things-"

Rika smacks the wine bottle against the wall, shattering it into a thousand tiny pieces, both cutting me off and scaring me half to death.

"I'm done pulling the wool over your eyes, Satoko." She speaks coldly, her gaze only somewhat fixated on me. "Everyone in our club's a liar. Shion's on the verge of losing her mind. Mion's isolation is going to grow until she loses _her _mind. Rena's only a few weeks away from slitting someone's throat and neither of us are particularly safe from any of it either. Everyone's filled up with nothing but hate for everything around them and it's all going to explode sooner than you could ever imagine."

"But as long as we-"

"The club never did us any good before. It didn't save Satoshi. It isn't going to save any of us, either." She then points the cracked neck of the bottle in my general direction. "And your friend from the city isn't going to do us any good either."

"Then what? What do we do?"

"We die." She throws the remnants of the bottle out the window. "That's all we've ever been able to do. We just keep dying – that's how it always works. That's what happen to my parents –" She throws an entire bottle of wine out the window this time. "And to your parents-" She chugs down half of another bottle before tossing the rest as well. "And it's going to happen to you, me, and everyone else."

"Rika-"

"Come near me and I'll throw you out too." She hisses, facing fully away from me as she grabs another wine bottle, proceeding to drink somewhat more normally. "…And it's the same thing. Happens to everyone, everywhere. Over and over again. Forever. Repeating." She drinks again. "It doesn't matter who's the hero or who's the villain. Everyone suffers the same way."

Against my better judgment, in that moment I forcefully embrace her. Despite her previous threat she doesn't resist me in any way.

I have no reason to deny her. I probably couldn't deny her. But this was Rika. This was someone I'd known to be entirely different from the girl before me – I _had _to deny her. Because no one should ever have to live with this sort of thing weighing them down. For my brother it had been his deep-seated fear of his dysfunctional family disintegrating. For Rika it had been this seemingly alternate personality buried deep inside her.

"It's not going to be that way." I tell her.

"There's nothing you can do."

"What makes you say that?"

"It's simply impossible. It's impossible to avoid human nature. Even if it's put off, it'll all still inevitably explode."

"You don't have faith in anyone, do you?"

"Faith…" She sighs. "You might have faith in the people who saved you. But faith won't save you from the guillotine."

"You can't even trust me? The way I trust you? Aren't we best friends?"

"For what it's worth." She speaks flatly before she shakes me off and returns to her futon without another word.

I didn't find that to be a good enough note to end on – but once I come up with something else to say, I find that Rika is already fast asleep, as though nothing had happened.

But something most certainly had. Something that I was better off forgetting, but never could.

It was more along the lines of forcing myself not to forget.

Because now I knew.

Now I knew the true face of despair. There were no bandages or markings of any sort in my way.

Now I could do it. Now I could see the truth.

I could see the truth for what it was –

* * *

_The Recollection of Satoko Amasuka_

"To this day," I continue after clearing my throat, "I'm fairly certain that from that moment on I'd become a completely changed person. Watching Rika become a completely different person before my eyes was enough to set my thoughts straight."

"So then you'd overcome your greatest obstacle?"

"Precisely. If I'd done so much earlier, I would've been able to see through Jack right away. But now it was the start of June and, as I'm sure you're aware, it was a little too late by then."

"I see… But the way I understood it, Keiichi joined the club."

"That's right, but in doing so, he brought chaos of his own to the table."

"He…I'm sorry, what exactly do you mean?"

"I'm sure you're familiar with his story, if you knew he was a part of our club. In the sense that he had no real story to begin with."

"…?"

"Keiichi's arrival in Hinamizawa was, despite how ironic it seems, nothing short of a miracle. Everyone found his entrance into their lives nothing short of miraculous – after all, he was able to solve everyone's problems, even though he was mostly a total stranger."

"So _that's _why he became such a central part of everything so quickly? Because he was the answer to everyone's prayers?"

"Of course. Think about it – Mion and Keiichi were both extremely close, and Mion was infatuated with him. He wasn't bound to the village like she was, and if she'd gone with him, she could finally be free from her growing isolation. Shion needed a medium to move on from my brother, and Keiichi fulfilled that role far too well. Rika needed someone to tell her she was wrong more than anything else, and Keiichi was set enough in his ways that he could do that without fail – I could go on, but you get the idea, right?"

"But if that was the case… Then why didn't his appearance solve everyone's problems?"

"The answer to that question is far more obvious than it seems… But I'll leave it up to you to reason it out."

"Hm… That's fair, I guess." For a moment she seems as though she was going to object to that, but she caves in rather quickly.

"Anyhow, we move on to a few days later… I'm sure you're aware by now of how everything in Okinomiya is set off…"

* * *

_15 Days Remain (June 15__th__, 1983)  
__Satoko Houjou_

It was only a few days after that when Rika's words finally kicked in. I found out purely through chance, as Oishi had passed the shrine on his way out of town after questioning Mion. It took very little work to get him to mention the body, and the moment he did I knew everything had started, just like Rika had said, and as she'd also predicted there was nothing I could've done about it.

I took today off from school to head into the city – the girl's body was left in an almost unidentifiable condition. It was nothing like the original Jack cases – they were torn apart by a far more carnal sort of anger than Jack's. But who else could have been behind it? Maybe Jack had become enraged. Maybe his killing methods were affected by some inner turmoil he was suffering from.

All the information I had received was second-hand, but it was all accurate enough. So, with my thoughts in order, I paid a visit to Shin for the first time in a good while.

It didn't matter _what _condition the body was in. The people didn't care about consistency. They only cared about the act of murder itself and reacted on their own fear of said act. The family would once again be targeted – but this time, things would be much worse. After all, the people had already built up enough tension over the course of a year – much like Shin had warned me before, everything I'd done was only temporary and it was all going to explode, like Rika had said.

I really should've started listening with my ears a long time ago.

But even knowing my fault, I still beg Shin to do something to resolve it all.

"Is there really _nothing_ you can do?" I try to plead with him – but he doesn't seem as if he's going to suddenly resign and give me what I want.

"No matter who it is that's pulling the strings, there's nothing we can do about them until they show themselves. And they simply won't show themselves."

"Then can't we sniff them out? Can't we do _anything _to find them?"

"No… No, we can't. There's no way around it – the people are united against the Sonozaki family. And it'll only become more extreme from here."

"Then…"

"It's a shame, but to get where we are, we had to offer them up as sacrifice – either the Sonozaki family burns, or someone else has to burn in their place."

But if the Sonozaki family were to burn, all of Hinamizawa would be engulfed in the same flame. Order would cease. We'd lose the entire village and likely most of Okinomiya in the process.

But there wasn't any other way. Even if Jack was involved, he simply couldn't be caught, not with my mindset from back then. I had to do what I did – otherwise things would've been a lot worse for everyone.

"Then who's gonna get hurt when the time comes?"

He sighs. "Everyone."

"That _can't _be right."

"You can leave the village, you can flea to Tokyo. You can even hop on a plane and fly to Australia – _everyone _will burn. It's only a matter of when and where. I'm sure I don't need to explain to you _why_."

I find myself about to say something, but I shut my mouth at the last minute –

I was about to say it –

_Just five, then? _

_Can't I save just five people?_

I cut my meeting with Shin short at that point – I had nothing more to say to him, and he likely had nothing more to say to me. He couldn't offer words of encouragement because there was nothing to encourage.

He knew as well as I knew that things were spiraling out of control and that it wasn't even a matter of time before things went south. It was happening now.

This was the result I'd ensured when I turned over all of that evidence against the family. I'd only put off the disaster – Shin knew this, likely from the start, and so he'd prepared for it.

He was a completely different person now – his name wasn't even Shin anymore. It was Saturn Anne, perhaps representative of the new face he had to wear – the face of someone who despises the idea of maintaining appearances having to do so in order for his ambitions to have a chance to live on. He knew as well as I did that Hinamizawa was a lost cause, but at the same time for some reason he cared enough to exhaust every possibility before raising the white flag.

His gaze was dark. He had the power he needed to change people – but he couldn't use it. And no matter how close we were he wasn't going to help me, because he couldn't.

Of course there was still the notion in the back of my head. _Either the Sonozaki family burns or someone burns in their place. _

It didn't matter _who _they were united against. As long as they were united against someone.

I'd been obsessing over the idea of catching Jack as my only alternative, but he just said –

Of course, the moment I stop in my tracks, Shin knows just what realization I've come across.

"If you want to save your village, there's one person and one person only that you can kill to do so."

"And who's that?"

"Bring me the head of Keiichi Maebara, and Hinamizawa will be saved." My eyes meet his – and never before have Shin's eyes seemed so empty and cold. "Of course it'll only be saved from the people of this city. There's only so many problems you can solve with one man's life, I'm afraid."

I'm stunned for a moment.

He wants me to kill Keiichi – and Keiichi only?

But if I were to do that…

"I'm not surprised you won't. Sonozaki-san refused as well."

"M-Mion's been here before?"

He shrugs his shoulders. "Yes, she came of her own free will, asking for… Well, it's not important. The point is… I know that none of you will ever give him up, no matter what's at risk if you don't."

"Then why give me the option?"

"Because you have to understand _why _none of you will give him up… But I'm sure it all makes sense now."

"…"

"You all rely on him, even though you've known him for such a short span of time. To the lot of you he's a miracle. He's someone that fulfills every aspect of your personal needs down to the dot. You won't let him go because if you do, all of your concerns and worries have nothing keeping them from getting inside and eating you away, bit by bit. You can't rely on each other, no – and I'm not the person who has the right to say why. You need to rely on _him_. Because he's just so perfect in every way imaginable… If only you could see the truth. But it's too late for that now."

"…You know him personally, don't you?"

I search his eyes for some hint of emotion – but I see none. All I see is that same emptiness.

He hates keeping appearances. But right now he's forced to.

"It's complicated."

At that point I know that I'll get nothing more out of him. I leave immediately afterward, his words still resonating in my mind.

We're all relying on Keiichi for _something_. Each and every one of us is. And we aren't capable of letting him go.

I'd never seen him as much before. But knowing him as well as I do now… I can't disagree.

He's like another big brother. And with regards to that, would watching another boy with the same face suffer and die at my own hands achieve anything?

More importantly, if I _were _to kill him, what would happen to the others?

Mion had become extremely attached to him. That much I knew for certain. Shion probably saw as much of my brother in him as I had. Rena probably felt the same way about him that Mion did. Rika didn't seem to particularly dislike him, but her aside –

If I took Keiichi away from all of them, what would happen?

I already knew things weren't as they seemed with the twins. Rena had her own share of problems too.

Without Keiichi, they wouldn't have anyone. Because they couldn't trust each other.

Would they explode like I had? I couldn't ever take the chance. Even if I set myself aside, it wasn't enough.

Rika's words keep coming back to haunt me.

_What are you willing to do to make two people love each other?_

_What CAN you do to make two people love each other? _

I return to the village via the bus, but on my way towards the Shrine I see Mion –

She's hurrying off somewhere, not in the direction of the estate, nor in the direction of anywhere she'd normally be heading to.

She's heading for the tree line. She's leaving the village…?

I follow her on impulse. If there was anyone who would break form and start wandering around random places, it wasn't Mion. On top of that, she was moving awfully fast – she wasn't paying any significant attention to what she was trampling over as she made her way further and further away from the village to the point where I wasn't even really sure where she could possibly be headed.

I follow her, trying my best to keep up but having a hard time doing so. It comes to the point where I doubt even _she _knows where she's going – but eventually I realize that we're following the river. She was following the river and heading north, further and further away from the village and into relatively unexplored territory. But as long as she followed the river, there would always be a way back to the village. Perhaps she _did _know where she was going.

Eventually, after what seems like an hour of this senseless running, we stop in a clearing, along the wall of a cliff that seemed to be at the base of the mountain a few miles from the village – had we really run that far? In such a short amount of time? The river seems to go on into the distance, but Mion stops here, at this rock wall.

I then notice it – there's an opening in the wall, not particularly large, but not all that small either – it was the entrance to a cave, a large cave at that. How Mion knew that such a place was here was beyond me.

"You're not bad at this kind of thing. I'm a little surprised." She suddenly calls out – I realize she was calling out to me.

"What're you doing, going all this way?"

"I should ask you the same thing."

"I was following _you_. I thought something had happened and you were –"

"Everything's fine… I just came out here to think."

"Oh…" I trail off.

"I heard about your new balcony from Rika. It's a pain in the ass when people can't finish their work on time. When were they going to install the screen door, again?"

"On the thirtieth…" I trail off again. Mion takes the hanging silence as a sign that her small talk wasn't going to go anywhere.

Silence fills the air. I'm still curious of what she was doing out here, but it occurs to me very suddenly that I have no business asking her to spill her secrets. Especially considering what I'd done to her family, even though it was anonymously.

It then occurs to me that Oishi _had _questioned her this morning.

"…Mion, I'm –"

"If you're going to apologize for breaking into my room, you don't have to."

My eyes widen. She knew? The whole time? She knew what I'd done, but even then she'd –

"For all that rummaging you did through my closet, you did a pretty bad job at checking for a live person hiding under the bed."

"…" I don't know what to say. I can't come up with any sort of response that could keep me on friendly terms with her.

"I'm just more surprised that you managed to fool everyone with a couple of names and a list. Then again, people _are _incredibly stupid, so it's not _that _unrealistic."

"…Mion, this isn't-"

"The truth is the whole deal with the Guardians wasn't something I'm proud of. There was more to that list than just the names-"

"You don't need to-"

"The Oni-baba told me to get people to join our cause no matter what I had to do. After a few people outright refused we started taking people down to the tunnels under the estate to convince them. None of it was pretty. None of it had to do with your uncle and his friends, though."

"Mion, I'm not-"

"I know what you were trying to do. I'm not going to hold it against you… But you have to be curious. Why would I go out of my way to do something I knew was wrong?"

Mion's question could've had a thousand different answers to it. People do things they know are wrong for all kinds of reasons. But for someone like Mion, who would do anything for the Sonozaki clan –

"Because you wanted to protect your family." I answer plainly.

"Right… I don't let people close to me suffer. That's something I've always lived by… You know, as far as any of us knew, Satoshi was doing alright… But in the event that he wasn't you could've come straight to me."

"…It wasn't that simple. No one else could've helped him… That's why I…"

"And you were so sure of that?"

"Because he was seeing someone…"

Mion hesitates to respond. So it would seem that she didn't know _everything _that had gone on with regards to my brother and those days before he disappeared.

"He was seeing someone and I knew if Shion ever found out, really _bad _things could've happened. He wasn't himself at all, but… But I didn't notice. I just thought he was the same. But he was suffering underneath and I never noticed."

"Shion's better than-"

"No… No, it's not like that. It doesn't take a genius – I know, Rika knows, and Shin – Saturn Anne – knows too."

"…You've been to see that guy too, huh?" She says with a sigh.

"I'm not stupid. I can't trust Shion. I can't trust Rena, either. A few weeks ago I figured out that I couldn't trust Rika either. I can only take what you say with a grain of salt on top of all of that. If we can't trust each other, then all the promises in the world mean nothing…"

"But does that mean that I'd leave you hanging if you needed me?"

"…"

"Do you know anything about this place?"

"…No, I've never seen it before."

"In the history of our village, this place was some kind of a battleground. There was a huge fight with a demon and in the end they sealed the demon in that cave over there."

"…Really? Then why is the cave open?"

"Well, it _is _just a story, I suppose. We never kept records, I guess? But all of that aside, they weren't just protecting the outside from the demon when they put them in there. They were protecting the demon from itself. Because the demon, all along, was just lost and confused. It thought that killing was the only way it could do anything. By sealing it away, it couldn't harm anyone and couldn't harm itself… So, if you ever get lost and confused, just come back here. I promise that I'll be here waiting for you when you do."

"Mion…"

She softly grabs one of my hands. "Everything you've said is true. I trust you, just because you understand how we all feel… I know it was difficult. I know I should've tried to do something. You say that you can't make amends for the things you've done, but neither can I… Just do as I said and come here, whenever you're lost or confused. That way I can make things up to you, bit by bit. It doesn't matter what you think… I _know _I can help you. All you have to do is let me."

At that point I lose control of myself and embrace her tightly.

"I'm sorry." I whisper into her shirt.

"There might not be a way out of this, but at least it won't matter if we stick together."

"Right…"

But right then, at the very end, when I affirmed everything she'd said, I didn't believe her.

I didn't. I truly didn't.

Because I'd looked into the face of despair.

And I'd seen the truth for what it really is.

* * *

_3 Days Remain (June 27__th__, 1983)  
__Satoko Houjou_

The entire estate – engulfed in flames, condemned to a fate that I had ultimately been the catalyst for.

I could see the bodies. I could see the burning carcasses. The mowed lawn set aflame. The buildings collapsing and the blood hungry Okinomiyans surrounding the pyre. It was like some sort of a demon ritual – the mob surrounding the chaos, seemingly dancing in how frantic their movements were. There was no describing the feeling – I was responsible for all of this.

All of it.

Was _my_ fault.

I'm just an idiot. A blind idiot who couldn't understand anything.

At one point I wanted to believe Mion. I wanted to believe that she'd keep her promise no matter what. She was the sort of person who lived by that sort of direction – but that was in of itself her single shortcoming. She was just a person. She couldn't perform miracles.

She couldn't stop her family from suffering, as I couldn't stop mine. She couldn't keep this from happening.

I frantically search the grounds for some sign of the twins. Part of me wants to believe they both survived this, although my gut tells me that neither of them did. There was just so much fire – there was no way anyone could escape the grounds alive. That would include me as well if I didn't move fast enough.

But as I reach a small clearing in the center of the pyre, I'm stopped dead in my tracks.

Standing a few feet away from me is Shin, in his white lab coat, choking Oyrou Sonozaki to death.

In a voice I never knew he had, he coldly condemns her. "Your blind ambition ends here."

Despite her condition, Oryou manages to grin at him and tell him off at the same time. "You know it's only a matter of time… Or did your father tell you nothing?"

He releases her, dropping her to the soot covered grass beneath her. "What my father told me, quite frankly, is none of your business."

Oryou gasps for air before speaking in a hoarse voice. "You were born into this world for more than this, you know."

"And what could _you _possibly know of my birth?"

"Why, I was there when it happened, child. After all, it's not every day that an illegitimate child is born to a family as prestigious in our village as –"

With a loud grunt, he stomps on her, driving her back into the ground multiple times. "You want to know why I came back? You should know the gun that killed my mother by heart now – I felt the need to return it. Ah, you figured it out! Right –_ that_ _same gun. _The very same gun – I killed your daughter with it no more than five minutes ago. Funny how vengeance works out."

"I see… So you've taken your revenge on Akane. Will you take Mion's life too? Or Shion's?"

"They don't have to shoulder the blame."

"Yet you leave them with nothing in the end? With _this_?"

"If they suffer, it's because of the lot of you… You do realize that I wanted to avoid all of this."

"Then why are you here? Why have you ensured that there will be no survivors?"

"Because this was the only way. The only way you could truly pay for what you've done."

With that, he pulls a pistol out from his coat pocket and aims it straight between her eyes. "What bigotry… I'd have taken your head instead of your arm back then. Be grateful – your death will be clean. Unlike mine or anyone else's."

With that he pulls the trigger and Oryou is no more.

"I'm sorry you had to see all of that." He calls out to me. I'm not surprised he knew I was standing there, but at the same time –

"Everything burns." He speaks again before I can even come up with something to say. "Everything burns, no matter how important it is to us. Everything burns – but once the fires die down, and only once the fires die down, man can truly begin rebirth."

"This wasn't the answer." I call out to him.

"I know it wasn't. But this was the only way we could bring them to justice."

"But this isn't justice!"

"We're in hell, Satoko. In hell, this is what justice amounts to."

But before I can say anything else, before I can question his personally driven motives, out of the flames appears Jack the Ripper, both of his katanas at the ready, lunging at Shin with a great battle cry.

He moves out of the way, blocking the first blade with his pistol and grabbing the other with his bare hand. The blade digs into him, but he doesn't even so much as flinch. Jack backs away just as Shin pulls the trigger on his pistol, but is forced to let go of one of his katanas. Shin fires another round in Jack's direction, and another – but after that third shot the pistol needs to reload.

Jack realizes this and makes another break towards him before he has the chance to reload – but in that instant Shin rams the hilt of the katana into Jack's stomach before closing the distance between the two of them and ramming into him with his shoulder.

Grabbing the hilt of the katana, Shin swings downward – but Jack blocks the swing with his other katana as he loses his balance and slips. Shin has an opening, but Jack recovers so quickly that he's unable to make use of it.

The two are at least three feet apart now.

"Well now," Shin taunts him. "It would seem that Jack is back. How peculiar that we haven't even met until now. Both of us being hired hands, I figured we'd have crossed paths much sooner."

"You've been aiming to kill my employer. Now you've gone ahead and done so. I'd say this meeting was inevitable."

Shin shrugs his shoulders. "If you say so… But I have to know. Did they mark you up too?"

Jack raises his right hand – imprinted upon the front of his hand were two English letters – the letter J and the letter R. "Judicial Rex. Only fair if you show me yours."

Shin raises his left hand – on the front of his hand were the letters S and A. "Subliminally Anonymous. USSR. I didn't expect anything flashy from you. You're only Hinamizawa bred, so it makes sense."

"Ah…" Jack finds Shin's display amusing. "So _you _were the Russian boy they always talked about."

"Well, when Japanese yakuza, no matter how small the branch, do deals with the KGB to solve territorial problems, outcasts like me tend to pop up from time to time. The Sonozaki family owes my father for their extended lifespan. Didn't seem to owe me anything, though."

"So you came to collect?"

"I came to change the world, believe it or not."

"So you deserted. Good to know, I definitely don't need any KGB knocking down my front door…!" Jack makes another move towards Shin, but his seemingly impervious fighting style is countered at each move. "How big is this world you're talking about?"

"A hell of a lot smaller than you'd ever imagine."

With that they both start fighting again – with each clash of metal their fighting seems all the more impossible.

"You don't fight like a Russian." Jack suddenly speaks.

"Hah, acting as though you know how a Russian fights… You're right though." He grunts as he locks blades with Jack again.

But in that moment, he puts all of his weight against one of his arms to steady his guard and draws what seems to be a tactical sai from the inner pocket of his coat. IN one quick motion he stabs Jack in the chest with it. "I've been living on the streets ever since my father's execution. I picked everything up from your people."

"How convenient…" Jack grunts, clearly feeling the pain of the strike. "…Then I've already won."

Despite the searing pain Jack grabs a solid hold on Shin's arm before he can let go of the sai – and in that moment he runs his katana through him. "…After all, anyone in our line of work never expects cheap tactics from a samurai."

Shin's blood sprays. It was over.

I consider going to his side, even though I had no place in this battle to begin with.

He slumps to the ground and collapses altogether, never even uttering the final words that with his personality he would've definitely had prepared.

Just like that Shin was dead – and then Jack turns towards me.

"This is as far as you go." He calls out to me. "If you give yourself up now, the bloodshed will stop. If you persist everything as you know it will end along with you. That I assure you."

"Never." I speak confidently and defiantly. "I might've caused all of this, but I'm not going to let myself die before I can make things right."

"And _still_, _still_, despite _everything_, you _still _can't comprehend the meaning of meaninglessness. There's no point to any of this anymore. Just give up."

Before I can make any sort of response, someone behind me calls out to me.

"Listen to a word that prick says… And it'll mean nothing!" I turn around – it's Keiichi, running towards me, his head evidently cut deeply if the blood running down the side of his face was any indication, my brother's baseball bat in his hands.

I turn back towards Jack – but he's gone.

Keiichi grabs me by the arm. "Before that guy comes back – we've gotta get out of here right now."

"But Shion and –"

"They'll be fine. Rena found the entrance to the tunnels wide open. We can hide down there until this all blows over."

I stare somewhat absentmindedly at Shin's corpse.

"Look, I know this is a lot to deal with. But we _need _to get moving. _Now_."

I look back toward Keiichi and nod my head. "Right…" I trail off as Keiichi leads me into the darkness by the hand.

I catch one final glimpse of Shin's body as his coat catches fire –

* * *

Now – now I knew. Now I understood. Now I could tell without a doubt in my mind that it was far too late to do anything. Now I knew that I'd run out of time – I'd run out of time and everything had fallen apart in an instant, a single, cruel, and calculating instant when all the pieces I'd been completely unaware of up to then moved into place.

I wasn't sure why I thought that someone like me, with no purpose in life greater than a homeless man's, could achieve anything.

There's no meaning to any of this. Not anymore. And we all know it. That's why we're hiding, deep in the bowels of the Sonozaki estate, waiting for our judgment to arrive. At this point there was no sense in continuing. There was only sense in waiting for our inevitable deaths. That was what spending hours down in the Sonozaki dungeons felt like.

Apparently, Mion had been hiding people down here for the longest time – apparently back during the dam war she was sheltering people that were very likely targets down here completely against her family's wishes. Of course I'd already figured out at this point that she'd been indoctrinating people into joining the Guardians, and that she'd been using these dungeons to do it, but I never really felt that questioning her motives would ever amount to anything, not that doing so would've gotten me anywhere to begin with.

Once we'd been able to verify that all of us were present, we got to work on making the catacombs inhabitable – it didn't take very long, but we'd have probably gotten done a lot sooner if we weren't in the condition that we were in.

I could even imagine what was going through Mion or Shion's head at that point – hiding underneath their razed home, waiting for death to claim us –

This is something that no one should ever have to experience. But despite that both of them were forced through it. For Shion, she'd already been through the less intense version of this once before. As for Mion, given what she'd been forced to do in the past it was very likely that she'd been through something similar as well.

I find myself tired and unable to think straight anymore. I decide to turn in – we'd managed to clear out an entire hallway of rooms in a few hours and I was exhausted.

I open one of the doors, only to find a pile of assorted objects, from torture devices to magazines in the center of the room.

"That's the storage room." Someone from behind me calls out. "I thought you'd have this whole place mapped out by now." I turn around – it's Rika, staring at me somewhat solemnly.

"R-Right, I'm just a little out of it right now, that's all –" I try to walk past her, but I find myself tripping as I do so. Rika manages to hold me up before I tumble over.

"I know none of this is easy to deal with." She whispers to me. "It's not going to be much longer. I promise."

More promises, eh?

"I'll hang in there." I grunt.

"You're better off just staying out of everything from here on out… Just stay in your room as long as you can, okay?"

"…I can't think of anything better to do." I manage to regain my balance and walk on my own to another room in the hallway. I hesitate to open the door, at first, because –

"…Rika, can't you come with me?"

She shakes her head. "There's no sense in trying to look after me. Just stay safe, okay?" She then gives me her usual smile before turning away and walking off before I can say anything more to her.

I decide to leave it at that – Rika had her own agenda, and in the end I couldn't keep her from doing anything, even if I tried to. I turn the rusted knob on the door and I'm met with a small and somewhat cramped room with nothing more than a bed stuffed into the corner, an air vent in the ceiling, and a lonely, dim light hanging from the ceiling.

As I step inside, out of the corner of my eye, I see the twins –

Mion is on the ground and in pain. I do a bit of a double take before I almost head over to them.

I take a few steps in their direction, Mion's injured area coming into full view.

Shion was tending to the injury with ointment and bandages. But –

On Mion's chest, there were three large gashes, likely gained during whatever miraculous stunt let her survive the attack on the estate – it was a wonder that she could perform all of that manual labor with such injures. I hadn't noticed any sign of fatigue coming from her whatsoever. She'd done a large bulk of the work as well.

This pattern seems to go on forever. I sigh with frustration before I head off to my room again.

Once I'm inside, I have time to mull things over. I lock the door and sit on the bed, finally able to put all of my thoughts together while the Okinomiyan mob's reign of terror continues above.

Shin was dead. The bulk of the Sonozaki clan was dead. Jack the Ripper, however, was still out and about. He'd gone after Shin because of what he was doing – but at this point, did Jack the Ripper even pertain to anything anymore? He'd been killing for the clan, likely for Oryou herself. But now it was all over. What purpose did he serve by killing Shin? Wasn't he just some hired hand?

His boss was dead. So why would he care?

…Ah, because he'd been killing out of love.

He was being manipulated by the family.

That's right. Back when this all began…

He was being manipulated. They took advantage of his love.

But love for the clan?

How could anyone have such love for the Sonozaki family?

…

Love for the Sonozaki family.

Love that could overcome any trial.

Love that was infallible.

Love between family members.

That must have been it.

But who?

Who could Jack the Ripper have been?

More importantly, the family appeared to have been taken completely by surprise.

But Jack the Ripper, who I can say almost without a doubt is a Sonozaki by blood –

How could he have known?

How could he have known that there was going to be an attack?

And why didn't the rest of them know?

…

…

And in that moment, I knew.

I think back to only a few moments ago in the hallway. I think back to Shin's death -

A wave of terror washes over me –

My heart skips a beat. My eyes glaze over.

Fear. Terror.

This feeling –

It's just like –

And suddenly, out of nowhere, a man appears before me, standing in the corner of the room. I don't shout, I don't make any sudden movement – I just look at him.

His hair is blood red. He wears a white suit and a black cape with a gold hemming. He looks upon me, almost with pity, but his loose grin seems to suggest otherwise.

That's right – it's been a very long time since I've been to Irie-sensei's clinic…!

This has to be some kind of hallucination…

Or maybe, it's the Oyashiro curse come to life? To punish me for what I've done?

"Figured it out, have you?" He speaks in a very condescending tone of voice.

"…" I don't respond to him with anything more than a light grumble in my throat.

"And if this Sonozaki knew what was going to happen, if they knew what you'd done and who you'd tipped off and that things were going to escalate… Then why didn't they say anything?"

"…Because they were protecting me… Like they…"

"Like they promised…" He sighs. "Promises are fiendish things. But for someone like her to exist… To keep every promise she's ever made or die trying – she's special in her own right. Don't blame her. But if you don't act accordingly, it's all over. For you as well."

"It's already written… I've let all of this happen."

"If there is one miracle that anyone can make, it's the miracle of redemption. But you won't be redeeming yourself – that's not as easy."

"I have to… redeem _her_."

"You don't have much time. The cicadas aren't going to quit singing so you can play catch-up. If you go now, it'll be possible."

I stand – and with that, the man disappears. I take a deep breath – my condition, for the first time since I've had it, was under my control, at least for the time being.

I had one final move to make.

Because now I knew.

Because I'd stared into the face of despair.

But now, I'm not afraid.

I can look that face in the eyes and tell it –

I pull open my door and step out into the silent hallway.

And something seems off right away.

Several of the doors are wide open. There's no sign of anyone wandering out and about in the halls –

I race to one of the doors – and instantly I'm greeted with the copper smell of blood.

I hesitate to look inside – but I force myself to.

And on the floor is a headless corpse – but the clothing more than suggests that the body is Keiichi's.

But if Keiichi's dead… Then –

I move back into the hallway and run to one of the other open doors – and on the bed inside, her throat slit, is Shion.

I make a move to another one of the open doors – this door was evidently Rika's room, as made clear by necklace on the bed – Rika had been wearing it earlier. But she was nowhere to be seen – she had vanished altogether.

I turn around – the door behind me, which was previously shut, is now wide open. I step out into the hallway.

And down the hall, with an unconscious Rena over his shoulder, is Jack the Ripper.

"Stop!" I shout.

He actually complies, turning to face me –

His face is no longer obscured by the bandages. But I no longer need them to hide away the truth beneath them.

"There's no more time." He says curtly. "You were right – one cannot truly trust another."

"But I don't understand, why have you-"

"There is meaning in this. You might not understand but there's meaning in all of this." He then turns away and walks down the pathway, into the darkness and out of sight, leaving me to nothing more than my thoughts.

Jack had killed them. He'd killed all of them. I was the only one left.

It didn't make any sense –

Or…

Or perhaps it did.

Perhaps there _was _meaning in all of this.

But what could I possibly do now?

Jack could be anywhere…

…

But…

No, there is one place that he will be. One place where I can find him, no matter the time.

I couldn't stay down here for much longer. I could perhaps spend a night or two, but that would be it. It would be wisest to wait for the activity up above to die down before making a move.

He had made his escape.

But he would be at that one place, no matter what.

After all, we made a promise…

"It's almost over, Mion…" I whisper to myself. "Only two more days… Then you'll finally be free…"

* * *

_At the Edge of the River, No Days Remain (July 1__st__, 1983)  
__Satoko Houjou_

I found signs of her presence near the cave in the cliff side, the small boat that meant salvation for the two of us tied to a tree stump nearby. I knew she'd be there – she'd never broken a promise we'd made before, even if she had no reason to keep any of them. She had no reason at all – yet she still chose to. There was no logic behind any of the things she'd done – it made no sense for her to defend me, my brother, or even stand up for her own sister. After all, no amount of kindness or good will made her anything more than what she was – that would've been the case even if she _weren't _guilty of at least thirty accounts of murder.

But still, here she was, like nothing was different.

But everything was different. Because one of us wasn't going to head back downstream alive. At this point, neither one of us had much of anything left. But even then, here we were, at what I knew was going to be the end of the road.

I, therefore, head into the cave without any regret whatsoever.

And inside I find everything I'd secretly been praying that I wouldn't.

Remnants of human shapes, scattered haphazardly across the cave floor. The walls stained with long since dried blood. Skeletal bits and pieces of people I likely knew, wedged into cracks in the rock, some of which stained with seemingly fresh blood. A wide circle of torches, surrounding the dead center of the room. And Jack the Ripper, sitting in the middle of all of it, clutching her katana as if it were her child, donning her practically trademark ouedan styled uniform, ironically enough spotless like it'd just been bought yesterday. Aside from the hachimaki – the hachimaki was dyed crimson.

On the floor in front of her, somewhat unsurprising, was Rena, entirely motionless and likely bleeding, although the lighting was poor enough that it was impossible for me to tell. I'd rather not seen any more of my close friends gutted, to be perfectly honest.

"You're here."

"I'm here." I reflect her obvious statement. "So what am I here to do? You could've just killed me before… Like you killed everyone else."

"Think what you feel like. Free thinking got you into this mess in the first place – just like with her."

"Is that what _you_ think?"

"She knew that Kei-chan was mine from the start. She refused to let him go."

"Because she knew you were crazy enough to slaughter innocent people in front of a police station. You kept her alive longer than the others – she _did _know, didn't she? You were supposed to be best friends, after all."

"It didn't matter if she knew or not. She couldn't make a difference in the end anyhow. But being who she was, she thought there was a way out – and just like everyone else, she gave up, and used Kei-chan as her last line of defense."

"And you killed him, too?"

"He never deserved any of this. I suppose it was all of our faults that led to his own suffering, but was there any chance that he could go on after all of this? He's not like us – he's different. He's not the sort who should suffer."

"Putting him out of his misery wasn't-"

"Do you have a better solution?"

I fall silent.

"…Tell me something. Have _you _ever made a deal with the devil before?"

I don't respond immediately – or at all, once I realize that her question makes no sense.

"You might not remember this as vividly as I do, but there's a certain thing about family ties. They're strong, and in a world like ours we can't live without them. You'd think of life without those ties – you'd be willing to do everything to keep them strong. You wouldn't want to lose them – not for anything. Your bond with Satoshi has to at least resemble this to some degree."

I understood that, at least. But I didn't see where she was going with this.

"There's a time when people like us, who live in families like our family, wonder – just what are we willing to do to keep our family bonds strong? But even if we think we can do anything, how can we really hold on to ties that are under so much strain that they can break at a moment's notice? The answers are simpler than it might seem – we are willing to do everything. Because without those ties, people like us are truly nothing." She looks towards me. "And we can only protect those ties through destruction. It doesn't matter what – if our family is preserved we destroy, again and again, until our last breath."

"What do you mean, _our _family? I'd certainly never resort to _any _of this."

"Hm… Not even if it was for your brother?"

I hesitate to respond. And she laughs at me.

"I wasn't ever referring to you in the first place… but it's funny – you can't deny anything I've said, can you?" She finally stands, her katana still sheathed. "There's something _else _you're seemingly unaware of. I'm sure by now you're familiar with the ritual of my clan – the demon sealing ritual."

"Somewhat."

"You see, the tradition of sealing a demon within the heir to the clan – such a tradition was founded on a lie."

"Interesting. You want me to care all of a sudden?"

She turns around, facing away from me, removing her coat – she's not wearing anything under it, but her chest seems bound with bandages, likely to hide her true gender while running around as Jack. But more importantly were the innumerable scars on her back – scars that almost obscured the dragon tattoo that she received many years ago.

"This tattoo – this tattoo was devised as the Sonozaki family's last resort. For almost two thousand years, there's been a secret passed to the elders of our clan – that in desperate times, when circumstances are most dire, the head of the clan may turn to that which is not of our world."

"…What?"

"To seek the soul of a demon – and by seeking that demon, turning dream into reality, but at the same time turning law into chaos. This place – as I've already told you once, this place sealed that demon since the days of our ancestors."

"And you came here… And with the tattoo –"

"We became one." She pauses briefly. "_This _is what I am willing to do for my family… But even then, after we'd killed once, then twice, then perhaps twice more, I knew it was never enough. I knew it would never be enough."

"…"

She covers herself with the coat once more. "But I had a ray of light shine through all of that fog – Kei-chan, the only person who could've just taken me away from it all."

I suddenly put things together.

"And…"

"Stopping me from taking your life away that day in front of the station for the sake of your brother wasn't enough. Rena had to keep striving for perfection that was never achievable. And when it call fell apart, she had to take _him _away from me as well. That's the only reason why I killed her. Because she's just an ignorant abomination that never deserved to be born."

"Everything… Was for your family?"

"And all of it amounted to nothing. And now I'm going to kill you. Because I'll be damned if I can't leave Hinamizawa behind me after all of this."

She only wanted to escape. She desperately clung to her family while she secretly wanted to leave them behind – she was used by her own kin, turned against everyone else around her. She was willing to kill me. She was willing to speak ill of Rena even though she was already dead. She loved Keiichi and wanted to run away from everything with him. And here she is, the soul of a demon entwined with her own, already having fallen of the edge of despair and wanting nothing more than to live for crimes she felt forced to commit.

Mion became Jack the Ripper because she adored her family. But the feeling was never mutual. She was always a tool, sent to collect my uncle's money.

But I'm not dying either. Maybe because I feel the same way –

Shin gave me what was left of his life to live, likely from the moment we met. And I'm not about to throw that away, even if Mion's gone through so much worse.

"I'm not letting you get away with any of this, if that's what you think." I speak with at least a somewhat solid resolution in my heart.

"I didn't expect you to." She then tosses me her katana. I look at her in bewilderment.

"What are –"

"We're going to fight. You're going to die fighting me."

"You're twice my size, you know."

"That hasn't stopped you before, has it?" From within her coat sleeves, two more katanas suddenly appear, both unsheathed and splashed with fresh blood – likely Rena's.

"This isn't exactly a club activity…" I try to maintain my resolve as I struggle to even hold the katana straight.

"Then let's make this a penalty game." She speaks words that were typical for her – but there's no life in any of them.

With that she finds it fit to run towards me. I'm already struck with fear, but with some manner of luck I raise the katana in such a way that when she swings at me I manage to block her – but the katana is sent flying from my hands a moment later. I don't have the reflexes or the physical strength to dodge the swings of a trained killer, but I can't exactly just stand still and expect for her not to hit me.

I run – it was the best thing I could come up with at the moment.

I pass Rena – I find that she has a cleaver in one of her hands. Hearing Jack behind me, I quickly pry it from her fingers and run off into the darkness. This was a much more conventional weapon, at least in the sense that I could carry it and probably swing it without too much trouble.

But the moment she lunges towards me I can't help but think that it won't have any use whatsoever.

So I was certainly surprised when I manage to wave off her first katana with the cleaver – the second one, however, is free to stab me at any moment. But she twists her wrist and rams me in the head with the hilt of the blade.

I knew this wasn't going to work. But I was still going with it. In my daze I manage to swing the cleaver with all my might – and I manage to scrape her, even if only slightly. She backs away and while I grip my head in pain she rushes in for another strike.

But at this point I've gotten a good enough feel for how fast she moves. There's little chance I'd survive any substantial damage, but as long as I wasn't hit…

She grazes me again, once again just barely missing me. I once again retaliate, but I can't swing the cleaver hard enough to do anything to her. She pushes me away and takes a single swing – in my confusion I trip and fall, avoiding the attack. I manage to get away fast enough to put some more distance between us –

Sure, I could probably get away with avoiding her strikes, but there was the simple reality that this fight had to _end_. There had to be _something _I could do – some sort of weakness that I could exploit. But she seemed too perfect. There were no holes for me to punch through to get at her.

"This has gone on long enough, I think." She suddenly speaks before in seemingly a single movement draws and throws a dagger towards me – my eyes widen as I barely register what's headed straight towards me. There's no way of avoiding this – she was too close to miss.

And so she hits me – but only in the arm. I still shout in pain, but I grit my teeth and try to pull through – the only thing driving me at this point was my promise to Rika. I pull the dagger out of my arm with my free hand – even if only for that promise, I couldn't lose.

She moves towards me again, her katanas at the ready – this time she shows no sign of pause. She simply swings at me, each swing with more force than the last. I manage to deflect some of them with the cleaver, but it would never be enough.

Eventually it comes to the point where I can barely even stand. I'm too exhausted to be able to reliably avoid anything else she threw at me. My open wound made it somewhat difficult to swing the cleaver around on top of that. I had to make my last stand now – I wouldn't have another chance to if I didn't.

She steps towards me again, her cold and ruthless gaze unchanging as she moves to finally strike me down. I have no way of physically overpowering her. She's showing no signs of exhaustion, while I'm coming close to fainting.

She swings both katanas at the same time, the slash coming from my right –

I hold the cleaver purely to block – I have no intention of ever swinging it again. All it can do now is serve as a shield. I hold it to shield my shoulder and I shift my weight against it.

The katanas collide with the cleaver as planned. I'm unharmed for the moment.

For the next two seconds, she's completely open. In the time it takes for her to shift her stance and swing from the opposite side, I can theoretically do whatever I want to. My brain seems to slow down – I can see her slowly shift as if two seconds had become twenty – I know my own death is near.

I can't even hope to swing the cleaver in this small window of time –

So I move forward, and having finally recalled the small object in my pocket, I make my final move.

With Shion's taser in my free hand, I ram the cleaver into her stomach and ram the small weapon into her side.

"What…" She feels the shock resonate through her whole body –

But this isn't the end. In order to block the full force of a blow like the one I'd just narrowly shielded myself from, I had to ensure that I wouldn't let go of the hilt – so I used the dagger's hilt as reinforcement.

And dropping the cleaver, I flip the dagger in my hand and stab her twice – once in the stomach, and –

"…I didn't think you had such an obvious weakness… But I'm short. And I don't think samurai are trained to protect their lungs from attacks like this…" I gasp as the hilt sinks into the lower part of her side. I hear her katanas drop to the floor as I pull the knife free.

But that still wasn't the end. I stand behind her and push her forward – when I dropped the cleaver, the hilt became stuck in a crag in the cave floor. It landed facing up – and so she falls forward, but manages to regain control of her body long enough to turn around midair – and so the blade of the cleaver sinks into her back and pierces her chest entirely.

And she falls silent – before she laughs. I look down on her sadly – I don't understand why things had to turn out this way, but…

"I know you were willing to do anything for your family – but this is what I'm willing to do to avenge mine."

She looks upon me with a different sort of gaze – I can't really understand the emotions going through her as she dies, but that's just as expected. I can't understand why she'd do this, only because…

Only because I'd never given back to my family. I never did anything for my brother. I was never truly his sister – just someone who took that role and felt cheated when that role was taken from them.

I wonder for a moment if Nii-Nii could've ended up like this – if I wanted something badly enough, would he get if for me, no matter what he had to do? I had to assume that he would have. After all…

It isn't until now that I realize that everything I'd called my brother foolish for had no such meaning – he succumbed to the desire for escape. Escape that I could've tried to provide for him that ended up being left up to others. Mion and Irie had both offered him distractions. Yomi offered him love and a different sort of cherishment. I gave him nothing – and here I am, alive and well.

I try to switch the roles around –

"I understand…" I begin. "I understand if you hate me. After all…" After all, I'm the very thing that denies her – someone like me is an incarnation of everything she stands against.

I almost expect her to say that our friendship meant absolutely nothing. I expect her to call me a hypocrite, a waste of space – anything. I expect her to vent her true feelings all at the last moment possible.

But instead, she reaches for her katana, struggling to hoist it into the air. I consider killing her right then and there- but she deserved a better final moment than that.

She lifts the blade and cuts off her own arm, all in one motion.

And she only says one thing.

"You're Jack the Ripper now…" She smiles at me, her eyes finally losing their focus as she is lost to the darkness.

* * *

_Recollection of Satoko Amasuka_

From that time onward, I managed to find the means to keep on living after all of that. It took some serious work, but I managed to get out of the village and made my way south – I was found by the police who had been searching the area – I was the only survivor of the whole incident, although in reality there's no telling how many people made it out of the supposed natural gas attack alive.

I was hospitalized for a few days – it became clear in the days that followed my bout with Mion that I was inevitably going to lose my mind – after all, I still carried symptoms of the Oyashiro Curse, and it would only be a matter of time before my paranoia caught up with me. In almost all cases, the only way to overcome the curse, as far as Shion had believed at any rate, was to face yourself and throw away every fear you could possibly have.

I realized that even after realizing how much of a fool I'd been my whole life, there was still no concrete way to affirm that understanding. I was still afraid of everything – everything that my brother had shielded me from my whole life. I realized that the only way I'd keep myself from falling off the deep end would be if I really accepted that I had to change.

But I'd already killed my dear friend. What more could I possibly do?

Everyone's already dead. There's no way I could possibly atone for any of it.

Aside from one thing, of course –

"You cut off your arm?" My eyes widen. This girl, who knew nothing about me, yet had ties to my village – she'd come to the right conclusion before I'd even explained it at all.

"Y-Yes, that's right… But how did you –"

She points to my right shoulder. "What you've got there is clearly prosthetic. Your left shoulder moves differently from your right."

I laugh, impressed with her rock solid deduction. "Well I suppose it does. Yes, I did cut off my own arm – but three years later."

"You survived under Syn… Ah, I mean, the conditions of the curse for _three _years?"

"It wasn't simple… In fact, it never would have worked out if the government's protection program hadn't placed me in that orphanage."

"An orphanage? Any relation to the murders?"

"Oh, no, not at all – but I was able to tear myself away from my past life – you see, I was more or less hired as a maid for a rich family about a year after everything happened. I was given a different name as part of my role – it was as if I'd been reborn as a different person. I managed to hide it all away until I returned to the orphanage one summer, and –"

"The cicadas?"

"Hm… Right again. The cicadas." I sigh. "And so I went through with it. Much like my brother had I learned that even the most peaceful respite doesn't last forever – your phantoms chase you until the day you die. And so I decided then that I would accept my failure as a human being by paying my brother back."

"To suffer enough pain to reflect the pain he'd fought in your place for all those years…"

"Right. That was why I did it – of course I wasn't able to return to my new duties, but at that point I could manage well enough on my own – I'd get paid for all of my past service the day I turned sixteen, and I'd have enough to get around for awhile."

"So then you just started over?"

"Yes, for lack of a better phrase. I never forgot what Mion told me when she died – upon her death I was named Jack the Ripper."

"And what exactly did that entail?"

"I'd do what she did – from that moment onward I'd do anything to preserve my family's bonds. No matter the cost. Of course my husband, Juusa Amasuka, didn't come along until I was in my early twenties… But from then on I did what was expected of me."

"Wait… That name sounds familiar… If I recall correctly, wasn't he –"

"Yes, he was the man that was found dead on a stranded boat near… Rokkenjima, I believe it was. He was shot at point blank, the poor man. I'd bless his soul, but he wasn't exactly in the best line of work to be getting into heaven any time soon." I laugh.

"So you've been a single mother?"

"Yes, that was the case… You sound skeptical. It's not as if I didn't finish my primary schooling. I ended up collecting everything he owned – and all of his money, at that." I laugh. "I won't say there wasn't a struggle at first. But my brother had gone through so much worse for my sake – and now, I had two twins to take care of. I had to show them the same love and care that my brother had shown me. That was my job as Jack the Ripper – that was the job that Mion had given to me in her dying breaths."

She falls silent, contemplating all of it. "So in the end… Mion _was _the one responsible for everything?"

"Well, I don't know about that."

"But… Didn't you just –"

"Believe me, for the longest time I wanted to just leave it at that – but I've had _many _years to think about it, and since that time I've had… Some reserves about what really happened to my hometown."

"…"

"Don't get me wrong – Mion was most definitely Jack the Ripper. But the more I think things over, the more I find the murders in 1983 – prior to the gas leak, of course – to make little sense if she was the one."

"…After all, she did everything for her family. So why would she deliberately repeat the actions that had drawn suspicion to her family in the first place?"

"Exactly. Mion wouldn't intentionally frame her family. When the first body was found in Okinomiya she must've realized that things weren't going to end the way she needed them to. So she took matters into her own hands."

"Then the answer… What's the answer?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that, my dear. At this point, the truth is with Mion's heart – I've already shared the only piece of it that I kept within my own. There's no one who can know the answer now. The truth is in the past."

She sits there in silence, staring into her cup of coffee – before she suddenly comes to some kind of realization. "…There_ isn't_ anyone, is there?" She then stands. "I'm sorry, but I've got to go. I'll try to pay you back for the coffee somehow."

I shake my head. "That won't be necessary… But I have to ask – where exactly are you going?"

"I thought there was nothing left there, but I was wrong… I have to return to Hinamizawa."

"Are you sure that's wise?"

"I'm not. But… You spoke of avenging your broken bond with your brother. Of the bond that Mion killed people to preserve with her own family… You see, I share a similar kind of bond – with everyone in that village. Everyone in Hinamizawa is important to me so… So I have to do everything possible to save that bond before it's too late."

I wasn't quite expecting reasoning quite like that. "Hm… Very well, then you go do that. Just don't do anything you might regret."

She nods her head, thanks me for my time, and leaves the booth, heading towards the door, only a few feet away. She swings the door open, her eyes now filled with some sort of arrogant determination. Something that was just so familiar to me –

I then see a flash – it was just an instant, but as her figure was enveloped by the sunlight –

I felt like I knew. It's like in that moment I could see deep into her heart. It was something I'd done in the past, but only with my own children… Only with people close enough to me that I could understand them inside and out.

I feel the need to speak. I feel the need to recognize that bond – a bond that I had thought had long since been severed. But this feeling was simply too primal to be misplaced. There was no doubt in my mind –

"It was good to see you again… Goodbye, Rika." I fall silent for a moment. "…You're Jack the Ripper now." I'm not sure why I felt the urge to say either of those things, but… it felt right to. I stare at her as she seems to have frozen in place, unsure of what to say in response.

But eventually she speaks. "…Goodbye, Satoko… I'll do my best." And with that, she disappears behind the door, heading out to face her responsibilities and desires at their crossroad.

I knew not of her purpose. I knew not of how or why the miracle that allowed us to meet like this had even occurred in the first place.

All I knew was that whatever she was going to do, she was going to succeed in doing it. Because even without our promise she would never give up – not ever.

**(BREAK)**

_From Beyond the Looking Glass_

_The Endless Sorcerer _

Well, it would seem that things have come to quite the climax. Without a doubt, you should now be able to perceive the truth from the lies – there's little more for us to unveil, and it would seem that the way things are right now the conclusion is drawing ever closer. I can only hope that you find your light in the darkness and come to the right conclusion…

Without a doubt, the reality of a 'demon' is ever prevalent. But don't we all have our personal demons? Or don't most of us, at least? Unfortunately, as you may have already figured, the 'demon' of this tale isn't quite as conventional a demon. It can't be explained through any sort of normal logic – there's simply too much that sets the world as it is apart from the world that we're expected to know and understand. But even then, there's a truth to it all.

**Only a demon can be the one true culprit. **That much remains true. After all, **no 'human' is capable of the Okinomiya Murders, just as no 'human' is capable of orchestrating the Hinamizawa Disaster.**

But observing this tale – this tale perhaps redefines 'human' and 'demon' altogether.

But even as everything around us changes and our world becomes more and more distorted as this final twilight approaches us, our rules, as they always have been, remain constant.

**A killer is defined as one who kills intentionally, with the motive to kill not including defensive exercise. A killer may kill accidently, but the majority of their murders must be intentional.  
****The detective is not the culprit.  
****At the start of all tales, the school girl's death goes unresolved.  
****At the end of all tales that take place in 1983, Miyo Takano erases Hinamizawa and its inhabitants.  
****At the end of all tales, every resident of Hinamizawa is dead.  
****Until conflict with Okinomiya begins, no visitors from Okinomiya are present in the village on any day or evening of any attack.  
****Okinomiya citizens are not conspirators. The mob is not a collection of culprits. The culprit may, however, be amongst the mob.  
****Starting on the eve of the Watanagashi Festival, Miyo Takano will disappear and will be inactive for two days.  
****The one true culprit is capable of all killings.  
****Only the detective and their assistant can confirm a dead body.  
****The Hinamizawa Syndrome, when administered, is administered by injection.  
****Only Irie, Miyo, and Mion are capable of administering the injection.  
****The man with the black hat is not the culprit.  
****I am not the culprit.  
****Miyo Takano is not the culprit.  
****Satoshi Houjou is dead.**

The fact of the matter is… There is a degree of truth in the foundation of this tale all on its own.

**In all fragments, the events leading up to 1983 are identical to Satoko's recollection. **I'd get into the specifics about different cat-boxes, but I don't believe it's necessary.

Furthermore, there is the reality that **at the end of all tales, every resident of Hinamizawa is dead**, despite Satoko's clear survival. Does this tale put this fact into question? Of course not. You're just not reading into it enough if you think so.

But enough of that…

…Surely, you must want to know about the _Truth of Jack the Ripper. _

Of course, **there is no faulty in this fragment's perspective. Mion Sonozaki and Jack the Ripper are two names associated with the same person. And Jack the Ripper is the mind behind both Bloody Christmas and the Okinomiya Murders of 1982. **

Of course given this, one could assume that Mion is the culprit of the murders in 1983.**This cannot be assumed. **That is all there is to it.

And on that note, there is something far more peculiar that needs to be addressed.

There is great similarity between Jack the Ripper and Mion. But are the two necessarily the same? In all reality, we need to examine the persona that became 'Jack the Ripper' from a slightly different angle to truly understand it.

The Sonozaki family gave birth to Jack the Ripper. Perhaps he was their greatest flaw of all, at that. But the matter of _how _Jack the Ripper became to be remains to be seen. Perhaps he was born during the Dam War. Perhaps he was the result of the growing tension between the two sisters that we see explode in this tale. Perhaps he was Mion's way of giving up on living a normal life and accepting her resignation of her humanity.

But think of Jack the Ripper this way – think of Mion and Shion as two siblings, destined to tear each other apart. Think of Jack the Ripper as a third sibling – an intermediate entity that mediates between the two, taking Mion's desperate but quiet hatred for everything around her and Shion's unshakeable will and turning them both into something awe inspiring, but terrible at the same time. A third sibling that serves no other purpose than to stand as a testament to the reality both want to reject so badly – Mion's reality of her eternal solitude and Shion's reality of her unrequited love – and at the same time their despair over one another – given tangible form. Tangible form that wants nothing more than to see everything burn for the sake of seeing everything burn.

But now, from the other perspective, the perspective of the observer of that time long since past –

Yes, **Jack the Ripper, the Sonozaki Demon, is the will of Mao Sonozaki, bound to Mion Sonozaki's own will**. Or rather, what's left of it after nearly a thousand years. Mao Sonozaki found death to be the one true solution to everything, and so Mion went to him in her time of desperation and took on his will – but ultimately death solved nothing.

And in the same vein as this acknowledgement, it's also peculiar to note the lack of the Furude Demon in this tale. Perhaps this was the acknowledgement of a Sonozaki Demon that perhaps exists alongside it, or perhaps there is more to the existence of these two demons than is perhaps made clear. I'd be expecting the latter, if I were you.

But now for the main event – the _Sonozaki Tunnel Murders._

This will likely be the hardest obstacle for you to overcome yet. But rest assured – the future holds even greater trials for you. As the conditions of these bodies become murky, I will provide for you the basic facts of the tale.

**Shion Sonozaki is dead.  
****Keiichi Maebara is dead.  
****Here, being dead is classified as not leaving your room after Satoko does. **It would be lovely if you could figure out the reason why it's like that for this scenario specifically.  
The detective is unable to identify the possibility of a body for Rika Furude. **Therefore, Rika goes eternally missing.  
****When Jack the Ripper is witnessed, Mion is still alive.  
**'**Jack the Ripper' did not kill any of the children.  
**'**Jack the Ripper' merely injures Rena.  
**'**Jack the Ripper' is not treated as the culprit, and therefore does not have to abide by any of the rules of a culprit.  
****In order for Mion Sonozaki to be the culprit, it must be possible for her to kill Shion, kill Keiichi, and injure Rena in the allotted time.**

I'd say it's about time that we played another time game, don't you think?

**All of the murders in the tunnels happened over a period of 30 minutes.  
****Satoko's perspective is solid – none of the victims made any kind of noise. **

**All doors were locked. **Not that this needs to be said.

**There are seven rooms that were part of this string of murders. There are more rooms, but none of them are relevant in any way.**

**A relevant room is considered to be a room that was used by the culprit to either kill a victim or reach a room with a victim. **In other words, **if the culprit was in a room at any time, it is considered to be a relevant room. **

**There are no more than four secret entrances connecting no more than two rooms less than one room away from each other together (in other words, there are secret passages that go through no more than eight of the rooms). When a secret entrance is opened it stays opened.**

**As all doors were locked, if the killer is human, they must have made use of these secret passages. **

**None of the doors were touched until Satoko left her room. **

**At that point all doors cannot be considered locked. **But does this mean that at that point _none _of them were locked?

**The layout for these rooms is as such:**

**Rika**_(Missing) _**Rena **(_Injured by Jack)  
_**(Empty Rm.)** **Keiichi** (_Dead)  
_**Mion's Rm. (Empty Rm.)  
****Satoko's Rm. (Storage)  
****Shion **_(Dead) _** (Empty Rm.)  
****(Empty Rm.) (Empty Rm.)**

**Any secret entrance going into the storage room can move the culprit two rooms over (in other words, the culprit can move to the storage room and then to another room at the time cost of only one room) and still be considered as one passage. **Think of it as skipping over the storage room. **Any passage from the storage room to the room that the culprit skips to will close, and y****ou would have to re-open the passage, which would count as one of the four passages taken.**

The peculiarities here mainly revolve around two things, at least in my opinion. There's the notion of _when _Rena was injured by Jack, and at the same time when Jack entered her room. What combination of four secret passages takes your culprit of choice to the victims also comes into play here, considering how **the door behind Satoko, the door to Rena's room, had been locked when she entered Rika's room**. **Even then there are still only four passages. **

But now we get to the overcomplicated part.

**If the culprit is human, the culprit must have been in their own room when Satoko opened her door.**

**30 minutes passed between the start of the murders and the end.**

**It takes 4 minutes to pass between rooms. **

**Therefore, the culprit could not have moved back and forth between rooms more than seven times.**

Ultimately there is only so much the Sonozaki demon is capable of. After all, it's already been established here that it is most certainly not the killer. But at the same time, what of the previous tale, where the murders are only possible by a 'demon'? Could the Furude Demon Nebiros be responsible for the murders in this tale as well? Then what of the

And so ends this tale… Hm? The final battle? What final battle? I tend not to take interest in things that happen after June 30th…

Hm….

Well, if you insist.

**Rena Ryuugu is dead.**

**Mion Sonozaki is dead.**

**And the one true culprit killed them both. **

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

Well, then, it would seem that I've _finally _run out of things to write about in this chapter. That's got to be a miracle all on its own.

On a quick note, for the room layout at the end, it's advisable if you copy it into some word editor and space things out to make it look better. doesn't permit extra spaces, so it looks strange because of that. The whole idea is that in the hallway there are rooms on both sides, the first room listed in a line being on the left and the second room listed being on the right.

Moving on, despite there being a fourth arc that follows this one, as it is now, **the mystery is solvable**.

And on the topic of that fourth arc – I don't think the fourth arc is going to contribute all that much to the overall mystery. I'm almost considering not even finishing the fourth arc now, taking this into consideration. But, if it comes to the point where a fourth are IS needed, aka if neither of my readers can figure out what the solution is, I'll make some changes to what I have planned for that arc and make it a standard thing instead of the one episode chapter that it's most likely going to be otherwise. The thing is, with the bulk of missing information that was going to be in the third arc taken into account, I might need to make a full fourth arc regardless, unless having one big 20k word chapter is under certain circumstances a good idea. I'm probably going to need some input on this, so rev up those reviews :P

There are only so many more hints I can give, though.

Up next is what I feel is far and away the strangest chapter in the entire story, if only because of how it pretty much takes a complete departure from everything even remotely Higurashi related. Hell, it's mostly not even WTC related in general.

And yes, I'm taking into account how this chapter reveals Saturn Anne to be a former KGB agent when I say that (And don't worry, that's something I plan on addressing in the fourth arc no matter what form it takes).


	15. F Chapter: Wind and Sun

_**Author's Note**_

Ok, so… Here's another really long one. Not quite as long as the last one, but pretty long at that. This one's particularly interesting because it actually gives you guys…*drum roll*….answers! To a whole lot of things, at that. And also several new questions because otherwise this wouldn't be a chapter suitable for this fic.

There's just one thing, however - despite what has been said prior to now, the man inside the Velvet Death is in his mid twenties. This is not a retcon or anything of the sort. Just ignore the context that Serika tends to speak in and treat him like he's not much older than she is. Please remember this as you read this chapter.

Anyhow, enjoy… whatever this is; I honestly don't know anymore.

* * *

_**F Chapter – Wind and Sun**_

_Ruins of Hinamizawa  
__Serika, v2.13_

Hinamizawa had always been in ruins, at least from a certain point of view. But in this world, so far removed from my own, it was a ruin in every sense of the word. I'd been here once already, only to see if there was anything left of the village I'd once lived in. It hadn't occurred to me until my talk with Satoko had ended that there was in fact no way for anyone alive to know of the truth behind the disaster. That was why the simplest solution was to find someone who was dead – or rather, the dwelling of one who was dead.

The best choice was to visit the house of Teppei Houjou. I already knew that in this fragment he played a major role in the disaster, even if was only in the sense that he was targeted by Mion as per the family's orders. I had a feeling, as weak as it was, that I could uncover some of the truth about Jack the Ripper from the Houjou residence alone.

I managed to make it to the village before midday – I already knew the way to his house, but as I followed the road in the right direction –

"You won't find anything where you're going." A voice suddenly rings out.

I turn – and there he is. And by he, I refer to the man who had become the Velvet Death on my arm. Who had thrown himself away so I could survive.

Without even thinking my action through I tightly embrace him. And suddenly come to a strange conclusion on a matter I hadn't done any real thinking about.

"…Keiichi?"

I wasn't sure how I knew – but he couldn't have been anyone else. There wasn't anyone else in the world like Keiichi –

"Close enough." He replies.

I move away from him.

He's wearing a coat now, but otherwise he's in the same attire he was in before. He's also holding a cane, which he didn't seem to have before. The wheelchair I'd associated with him was nowhere in sight, however. I get a good look at his face, finally – he's definitely Keiichi, although he looks a bit older.

"If you want the full story, I'm not going to deny that I'm Keiichi – although it's a bit more complicated than that."

"Here we go…" I sigh.

"Don't give me that… The point is, I'm a very particular Keiichi, recently escaped from both hell on earth _and _from the bowels of a really dusty old weapon. I happen to be the last Keiichi, as in the last fragment created before all of this Nebiros business started."

"The last?"

"In other words, there are no more Keiichis after me. I'm sure you know by now that you've pretty much run out of fragments to hop to."

"I see… You're right about that, at least."

"…Anyhow, for the time being, you really shouldn't be calling me Keiichi."

"And why not?"

"I said, it was a bit more complicated than that." Keiichi certainly _was _different from the way he normally was – although I have no right to say what Keiichi was normally like. "Let's see… Back in my fragment, Saturn Anne named me the End Dreamer. So, for the sake of consistency you can just call me Dreamer from here on out."

"You _know _I'm never going to remember to do that."

"Just, I don't know, write it on the bottom of your shoe or something… Anyhow, there's a very obvious place that you're forgetting to check for clues."

"And where might that be?"

"If I've been following the script correctly, you should know about the Frozen Flame by now." As quickly as he'd gone out of his pompous witty mode to explain things to me he slips right back in. I have no clue exactly what he means by that, but I figured it would be better if I didn't question him.

"Yeah. What of it?"

"You haven't considered the possibility that actually _finding _the Frozen Flame might get us somewhere?"

"If I had any idea where to check, I would."

"Think it through."

"…Well, it would only make sense for Hanyuu to still have it."

"But say that she _didn't_. Which she _doesn't, _by the way, and I stuck around Astaroth a lot longer than I needed to in order to find that out. Where would it be?"

The Frozen Flame was something Hanyuu held extremely close to her at all times. In the event that she _wouldn't _keep it close at hand, she would most definitely leave it with either Riku or store it somewhere she knew would not be trespassed upon by people who she didn't trust.

Where would such a place be…?

…

…Could it have been that simple?

"…So you're saying that, for a thousand years –"

"Right where she left it. You feel like hiking over there and checking it out?"

I ignore the comment and I turn around, heading off down the road and back towards the main section of the village, Dreamer following behind me, attempting to make the trip more colorful with his commentary.

It didn't take me very long to get to where I wanted to be –

And there it was – I'd never expected something like this to eve be relatively within my reach – let alone _here _of all places. The Frozen Flame, the catalyst for all things, including this eternal hell I've been cast into. It was simply there – it was in the smallest of boxes, hidden away under the floorboards of the Saiguden for someone to just stumble upon.

Only members of the clan were permitted to enter the Saiguden, so no one Hanyuu didn't trust would be able to get at it unless they broke in. No one would dare do so anyway purely because of the threat of being condemned by the leader of the demon clan if they did so. There was no better place to hide the catalyst for the universe than in the most conspicuous place possible, as strange as it seemed.

There isn't any way I can describe the feeling. If I did, I'd almost be accepting that fate allowed me to find it here. In a sense, this was the Frozen Flame's way of telling me that it _had _hear me, and it was going to challenge me head on. It just gave me the first move, and now I had to take it –

"I wouldn't try destroying it, if I were you." Dreamer suddenly speaks up from behind me. He hadn't even seen it yet, but he must've assumed that the silence that had hung in the air was indication that I had.

"Why not?" I ask a rather dumb question – even I know the answer to that.

"All we know for certain about the Frozen Flame is that it's the god particle – it created the whole universe, and I don't think it would've stuck around for as long as it had if it didn't still have some influence over it. We don't need a temporal paradox now of all times."

"So we wait until the right time?"

"Exactly… Although I'm not sure what destroying fate itself will bring about, doing it spontaneously won't do us any good."

"Makes sense… But if we've come_ this_ far…"

"I've got the same idea. Be ready, we don't know who's coming after us." He pulls a cigarette out of his coat pocket and lights it, proceeding to smoke whatever herbal concoction was in it. During our walk over here he'd sort of explained how he had to smoke some non-nicotine concoction Lambda had given him to maintain his human form or something along those lines. "I'd wager our favorite beastie will get here first. I don't expect Sir Laughing Hat and Bloody Mary of the Month to be that far behind, though."

"Some creative nicknames you've got there."

He shrugs his shoulders. "I hope you realize I'm not here to make you laugh. I'm here to keep you alive."

I consider removing the Frozen Flame from the box, but the longer I contemplate the more that I begin to lose myself in its brilliant glow. I shut the box without a second thought – I had to remember what the Frozen Flame did to normal people. If I were to look at it for long enough all of this would be for naught.

It didn't take very long for something to happen – in fact, it took all of about thirty seconds before I heard that familiar howl off in the distance.

"It's time." I eventually speak. Wordlessly, Dreamer seemingly bursts into a thousand sparkling fragments and no more than a moment later rematerializes on my arm as the Velvet Death. I aim the cannon head – the feeling was extremely familiar even though I'd only even used it like this once before. I aim towards the doorway, preparing to take a shot the moment Nebiros came into view –

Of course what I wasn't expecting was for Nebiros to break through the ceiling – _behind _me, at that – and take a swing at the back of my head. I lurch forward on reflex and turn as fast as I'm physically able –

But of course by then it's too late. Nebiros swings its massive arm towards me and hits me squarely in the stomach. I don't even have the opportunity to raise Velvet Death in defense. I'm sent flying out of the Saiguden and into the dirt outside, somewhat helplessly rising to my feet, taking note of the two red orbs staring me down from within the darkness of the Saiguden.

…Wait, but didn't Nebiros break through the roof shouldn't the sun be –

It then occurs to me that it's suddenly the dead of night. It was at the most high noon when I'd arrived here – how was this possible?

"Something's not right here." I point out the obvious once again.

_Hm… We're in one hell of a Reality Marble now._

"What the hell is that?"

_Oh, right, you're a little dated for FS/N jokes. Point is Nebiros seems to have dragged along a fragment with it. _

"Dragged along a fragment – what does that even mean?"

_As I'm sure you're aware fragments can vary in size and strength. The fragment that's influencing us right now is a Spell Fragment. They're weapons that witches usually call upon when they're fighting each other. Kind of like Astaroth's Flames of Ragnarok. Most of them drive human's completely insane if they're even somewhat exposed to them, but this one seems pretty tame._

"Really now… That seems like a stupid gimmick to me."

_What did you think they were? Anyhow, this one is called Eternal Night. Pretty self explanatory effect. _

"So I lose my biggest advantage here. Sounds like a fun fight."

_Let's not forget that Nebiros could probably rip you in half bow that it's in its own element._

"What's that supposed to mean?"

_The last time we fought Nebiros it was in the Sea of Fragments. Right now we're playing on its home turf. Don't be shocked if an army of zombies comes out of the ground or something._

I aim Velvet Death. "I'll just kill it before that happens."

_You think you know how this time?_

"This has to be the real one again. It came after me for a pretty clear reason… Right now I've got the Frozen Flame. All I need to do is beat Nebiros into submission and see what happens."

_This is quite a Pandora's Box you're opening here. Testing the most powerful celestial force in the universe isn't something someone should be able to do so nonchalantly. _

"Literally ending all time isn't something someone should be able to do so nonchalantly either. We're about even."

With that I fire Velvet Death – Nebiros leaps out of the hole in the ceiling and spirals towards me. O leap away and take another shot, this one narrowly missing it as it twists its body to follow up with a mid air kick to my side. I avoid it and lose my balance in the process, but only momentarily as I use Velvet Death as a crutch to force my weight against as I build momentum and send myself flying into the trees after Nebiros-

But at that point it's already moved into position. A large burst of black fire expels itself through where Nebiros' chest would have been while the beast itself lunges after me, hurtling towards me with the fire only a meter or so ahead of it. I fire Velvet Death, managing to divert the path of the fireball, but Nebiros has a wide open shot at me.

Of course at this point I realize I have a wide open shot at _it _as well. I take aim and fire, immediately moving out of the way as there was no way my shot would've slowed Nebiros down at all. The beast spirals off course and crashes into the bushes headfirst, its massive arm pulling down an entire tree with it. Even Nebiros was smart enough to realize that throwing said tree in my direction a few moments later was a better plan than blindly rushing towards me.

I manage to avoid the tree without much difficulty, but what I don't count on is Nebiros sort of hurling itself in my direction _with _the tree. There wasn't much hope for me at this point – not if I was going to let myself be caught off guard by openings like this.

The impact of Nebiros' fist against my face sends me flying across the clearing and into a tree just to the right of the Saiguden. My next option would probably be to get some kind of height advantage over Nebiros, but there wasn't much chance of that going anywhere – I couldn't jump around at inhuman speeds, but Nebiros could. Furthermore, there was still the question of whether or not I could actually do any effective damage to it or not – obtaining the Frozen Flame certainly changed things, but I have no way of knowing what.

"Any ideas?" I ask Dreamer.

_Just one. I can't exactly put all my cards on the table in one play, but…_

"Wait, if whatever you're doing has anything to do with you pulling another stunt like –"

_Don't worry; it's nothing like that. Honestly, can't you give me any credit for anything? I even came back alive the first time. _

"Whatever you're gonna do, make it quick."

_Alright. All I need you to do is aim._

"I don't think any of our shots are going to do anything particularly incredible."

_Just aim for its head – around the neck should do just fine. I'll do the rest. _

I leap onto the Saiguden, taking aim at Nebiros, who upon noticing me immediately leaps into action. I do as Dreamer had said – I aim towards its throat as accurately as possible. Nebiros continues to hurtle closer towards me as I wait for Dreamer to pull off whatever he's going to pull off

And in one short moment the cannon suddenly grinds against my arm, simulating a crushing feeling. I grit my teeth as the Velvet Death heats up and seems to be a few moments from some explosion. A dark blue haze begins to seep from the cannon's head, until –

A flash of light and a great roar, both from the depths of the Velvet Death.

Dreamer suddenly springs forth from the blinding light some momentum send him flying towards Nebiros, his cane in one hand and some white fire surrounding the other. With seemingly the force of a freight train, Dreamer slams his flaming fist into Nebiros' chest, hitting him hard enough to send the beast crashing into the ground, forming an indent in the earth beneath it. Dreamers fist lets off steam, quite literally at that as he descends upon Nebiros with his cane, which inexplicably sets itself on fire.

Dreamer pierces Nebiros through the stomach this time, eliciting a sharp cry from the beast in question and deepening the crater in the earth with the force of impact.

Several feet in the air above them, medium sized crystalline spheres materialize virtually out of nowhere, each a different color. They slowly rotate around the two, gradually gaining speed. In a matter of moments I can see the outcome of this –

Dreamer leaps out of the crater with whatever strength he could've possibly had left and almost trips while landing, rather comically putting all of his weight against his cane to keep himself standing upright. There was a moment where all of the objects seemed to shimmer before they instantly charged straight towards Nebiros at blinding speeds, creating a black cloud of some kind of visible electric current surrounding it.

Dreamer pulls out a cigarette, lighting it almost too casually as he smokes it with a sigh.

"A pity… It didn't even last one cigarette."

With that he tosses the cigarette into the electric cloud, and in an instant the cloud explodes into a dazzling light show, sending sparks of innumerable colors flying everywhere. I was almost certain that Nebiros had screamed, but the sound of the Technicolor explosion was so loud it had drowned it out. The dark sky suddenly brightens as the twilight sun suddenly appears from behind the clouds, the spell of _Eternal Night _broken.

Once again I'm at a loss for words. I'm not even entirely sure if we'd won just now – I have no clue what to make of anything I'd just seen.

But I suddenly have to move into action again when Dreamer suddenly gags on his own blood and coughs it out onto the ground in front of him.

As I move to his side, I realize that Nebiros is still in the crater – unmoving, but evidently still clearly there.

"How disappointing…" Dreamer grunts, gripping his chest as he seems to be about to cough up more blood. "…I'd figured I'd last longer than that."

"What the hell did you even do?!" I shout at him, supporting his back with one of my arms.

"_Toccata. _Seven roaming fragments that make one big Spell Fragment. For both of our sakes, he'd better be dead after this – I can't exactly pull that off more than once."

"Where'd you pick up something like that?"

"I spent a summer or two in the Golden Land. It's funny how hard it is to _leave _an eternal paradise."

I don't question him any further as the dust begins to clear – Nebiros is still clearly breathing.

"So much for that idea." I murmur.

"It's not as though we could've killed it in the first place… Stand back." He then starts moving again – I feebly try to stop him as he stalks closer to the writhing Nebiros –

The once mighty beast is now crippled and deformed – alive, and perhaps eternally so, but crippled to the point where it could only wish for death. It seems to twitch like an insect, its massive arm limp at its side and seemingly smoldering from the inside out. Its breath ragged and impaired, it tries desperately to worm away from Dreamer as he approaches.

Only then do I notice half of its skull has been blown away – and underneath it, no longer hidden away by the black void, was a human face.

A young woman's face – a young woman, no more mature than my own, perhaps even younger looking. Her exposed eye a dull yellow shade, perhaps even golden, her skin a deathly pale, and her lips a cold and lifeless blue. She didn't seem to have any hair, although it was still impossible to know for certain.

I stare at this human face, baffled.

Dreamer finally takes notice, but his reaction is entirely different from mine.

"This is…!"

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a voice belonging to neither of us suddenly cries out –

"…My…My heart…! Please…!" I then realize it's this girl – Nebiros – who's trying her hardest to speak.

"Your… heart?" I try to make sense of her words as best as I can.

And in the next moment _another _voice, this one off in the distance, cries out. "_Stop!_"

Dreamer suddenly tenses up – literally out of nowhere, a figure appears in the crater, standing over Nebiros.

I recognize her immediately. It's Hanyuu, just as she had appeared in that laboratory that one time.

She falls to her knees in front of the fallen beast, cradling Nebiros' head with her arms, her face clearly distraught and almost on the verge of tears.

Dreamer takes a step forward.

"No more." Hanyuu speaks curtly. "This is more than enough."

"Hanyuu?!" I shout. But I receive no response from her.

"Rika-" Dreamer turns towards me, but in that same instant a black vortex opens behind Hanyuu and Astaroth steps out, his grin less maniacal this time.

"Alright, alright – break it up. I don't feel like cleaning up another causality fuck-up, so let's stop hurling fragments at each other, alright?" He says almost with a sigh.

Dreamer turns back towards him, likely to make some kind of move as I attempt to step forward – but something holds me back.

"Did you miss me, Serika-tan?" Nero whispers into my ear, roughly kissing my exposed neck and biting into my skin as she slips her hand down my jumpsuit and retrieves the box with the Frozen Flame inside it all in one motion.

"You know, everything would be a bit more convenient if you would just stay dead." I reply.

"As much as I'd like to stay here and arouse you all day, I've got a job to do. But thanks for getting the hard part out of the way." She says in a needlessly cheery voice.

"Looks like everyone's here." Dreamer says with a sigh.

"You didn't expect me?" Astaroth says with an amused snort.

"_Of course _I did. The first follows the last wherever he goes, right?"

"Aww, so you _do _remember. I'm so moved." He adjusts his hat. "Since he's been… quantum leaping a bit more than usual lately, I suppose that Battler still wants us both dead after all that. But good old times aside, you _really_ should've just taken the Flame and run off with it. You might've gotten a little further."

"What sort of joke is this?" Dreamer sounds genuinely enraged.

"What joke? You mean…" Astaroth suddenly bursts out laughing. "You _didn't know_? How many demigods with antlers did you think there _were_?!"

"Don't be afraid… You're fine now. You're just fine…" Hanyuu can barely hold back her tears.

Nebiros groans again. "My… heart…"

"Ah, right. Nero, toss it here."

Nero passes the box to Astaroth without letting me go. Dreamer doesn't even try to intercept it – there's no sense in doing so. Astaroth removes the Flame from the box and carries it over to Nebiros. He slowly places the Flame against her chest and it sinks into her, much as it had into Hanyuu. Nebiros seems to relax immediately, letting out a curdled sound that likely served as a sigh of relief. Astaroth then removes it, stuffing it into one of his coat pockets. "She'll be fine. She's the least of our worries right now." Hanyuu nods in response to his word.

"Rika… Things got more complicated than they should've. I'm sorry, but..." Dreamer trails off. I'm unsure if the others notice, but Dreamer is clearly no more than a few minutes away from collapsing. If we had any chance of getting out of this, I had to move things along myself. Astaroth was arrogant, so all I had to do was push him to get done whatever he was going to get done while he still thought Dreamer posed a threat.

"What's all of this about?" I finally question.

"A royal spat from a thousand years ago is what all of this is about." Dreamer sighs.

Hanyuu finally stands, leaving Nebiros' side and standing in front of her, spreading her arms out. "I'm sorry." She begins. "But I can't let this go on anymore."

It takes me a few moments to realize that Astaroth and Hanyuu, as well as Nebiros and the Frozen Flame itself, are all on the same side – sided against me. "What…?"

"I won't let you harm her anymore… This all has to end." She shakes her head. "There's no point in any more of this pain. Let it go – things will be better if you let it all go."

"And let the world end? Are you crazy?!"

"You're only going to hurt. You're only going to keep losing things the further on you go. Once everything is said and done, even _if _you somehow overcome everything, what's going to be left?"

"You should know by now – there's nothing we can't accomplish. That's why I'm here – we can make another miracle. Even if Bernkastel isn't here anymore, we can still change things –"

"I won't let you. I'll die before I'll let you make another miracle."

"Why...?"

"Whether you like it or not, humans can't live without fate to guide them. By tearing apart fate, you tear apart the one fundamental law that maintains humanity. Without it, the world would descend into such chaos that there would be no way it could ever recover. The end of the world is a much brighter end than the end mankind will inevitably bring itself."

"…I don't believe what I'm hearing."

"Do you disagree?" In one of Hanyuu's open hands, the Onigari no Ryuou appears out of thin air in a flash of light. Her eyes are cold, hateful, and resolute. "Then kill me. Right now – take your Velvet Death and kill me. See how much your naïve ideology is worth."

Nero releases me. I stare Hanyuu down, my intense gaze trying to overpower her own.

But I let out a grunt and back down.

I can't do it.

There's just no way.

Looking into her eyes like this, I know it's impossible.

I can't kill Hanyuu.

I could barely live with killing Nebiros after the suddenly realization that it was more human that I'd ever imagined.

There's no way I could kill Hanyuu.

"…As I thought." She then turns away. "We're done here, aren't we? We have her heart. That's all we came here for."

"Why are you siding with him?"

She hesitates to speak, but eventually responds. "Because I… Love him. And I love my daughter just as much."

"Oh, come on. I don't think you could even fool _me _with that one…" His grin is more wry now, despite the tone of his voice.

"Your _daughter_?"

Astaroth shakes his head in admonishment. There seems to be some degree of uncertainty in his expression even if it's there for all of an instant. "But really, she _is _your descendant. You could at least _try _to tell her what's going on."

"I'd hate to interrupt this episode of _Family Matters_, but we've all got places we have to be." Dreamer speaks up again. "…Or do you not want to have your front row seat to the show?"

"Hm…" Astaroth adjusts his hat again. "You've got a point there… Your pop culture reference goes straight over my head, but you've definitely made your point." He turns away. "Nero, we're leaving."

"What about Serika-tan?" She asks innocently.

"She did her job."

Nero sighs before letting me go, pushing me to the ground, and walking off. Another black vortex opens behind Astaroth. Hanyuu manages to lift the mortally wounded Nebiros and carries her off into it as Nero follows.

Astaroth turns towards me.

"…You'd best be on time. We can't have our end of the world party without the jester, after all." With that he steps through the void, which closes behind him, leaving me to my thoughts and Dreamer to his injuries.

He finally falls over, the danger finally dissipating.

In my daze I manage to make my way over to him, unsure of what to do next.

"That bastard… I could see it in his eyes. He knew I was about to collapse…" He grunts. "How ironic… That I of all people just can't figure out what goes on in that man's head…"

"Don't… Don't strain yourself."

"What, afraid I'm gonna croak?" He gives a pained smile. "I'm not dying until that man's head's on a stick. Or at least in another dimension."

"That first one's probably a bit more practical…" I trail off, still fighting with all the sudden realization that had hit me only mere moments ago.

"…Let's get out of here. We'll find an apartment in Okinomiya. The best thing to do right now… is cool off." He coughs up more blood.

"But what am I going to do with you?"

He vanishes in a small flash of light before reappearing on my arm as the Velvet Death.

_Takes care of all of our problems, doesn't it?_

I shrug my shoulders as I head off in the direction of the city.

But all the while I just can't fathom any of it.

* * *

_An Apartment in Okinomiya, Later that Night_

In a somewhat fetal position on the bed, I just lie there. I have no intention of moving – there's not much point anymore.

Every time I've been discouraged, there's always been a way out. But not this time. Not now – not now when there's no way of proceeding.

I never expected it –

I never did, not once, not through any of this –

It wasn't that it was impossible to defeat her. It wasn't that she was all powerful or some godly creator. She was simply chosen by some god particle to carry out some greater purpose. But it wasn't that greater purpose. It wasn't the notion of fighting something all powerful.

It was the notion of killing her.

I can't kill Hanyuu.

_I _can't kill Hanyuu.

But I have to.

So I won't.

I hear the door open and close – I can only assume Dreamer came back.

"I bought snacks." He announces for no particular reason. "I suggest that you eat before we move again."

"I don't feel like moving again." I speak somewhat dully.

He sighs. Not with frustration – he simply sighs. I can't really understand how he could be so calm right about now – I was jeopardizing everything. If we still had a chance I was about to just let it go. I was willing to throw everything on the line one more time, but I couldn't do that if I had to risk someone important to me, even though things were different now.

But he's still here. He hasn't abandoned me even though I've clearly run my course.

…But if I think about it, it makes more sense that it seemed to at first.

He _is _Keiichi, after all.

Perfect Keiichi, who was in fact not perfect at all. He was just normal – he was just like anyone else, and that alone was what drew all of us towards him like a magnet.

He was kind, almost unconditionally kind, and that was what made him who he was.

"I don't want any of this." I sigh.

"Neither of us do. Trust me." He trails off. "…What needs to be done needs to be done. But if doing so gives us an ending you're not satisfied with, then we just have to keep trying until we find another solution."

"But what if there _isn't _another solution?"

"There always is, isn't there? That kind of thinking got you this far in the first place – don't ever forget that."

"I can't hurt her."

"You _won't_."

"Right, I won't."

"You don't want to hurt her."

"No, I don't. I don't want to hurt anyone. I've done enough of that… Before we met, right when I came out of that fragment…" I shift my gaze, staring out the window, watching the rain patter against it. "I noticed. When I killed Rena… I wasn't myself then. I was something else. Maybe a little bit of Bernkastel was left in me after all. But despite that I don't want to be cruel."

"You want to be just."

"…There's a very long list of things I want."

He then moves towards the bed, resting his cane against the mattress as he sits relatively close to me. "Then tell me, Rika. What do you really want?"

"What do I want?" I sigh. "I want to grow up. I want to be old enough to go out with someone."

"I'd say you've already done at least that much. You've turned out to be more beautiful than I would've guessed you would. Mechanical implants aside."

"…That's actually a bit sweet. Especially coming from an old man like you."

"…Haven't we established that I'm actually quite a bit younger than you are?"

I dodge the question as I continue. "…I want to get married. I want to have a kid, a daughter, I want to name her Kizuna, and I want her to start out as rambunctious as possible and then turn out to be the sweetest girl in the world. I want to visit Europe – normally, this time – and I want to go there with everyone from the club. And go to a zoo with Rena so she can take home a live panda bear. And push Satoko off the edge of the Leaning Tower and shock everyone when she survives. And buy Mion a real gun from a gun launderer, and take Shion to a bar so she can find a new boyfriend, and sell everything in that goddamn Saiguden and spend all the money on a hike up some Russian mountains with Akasaka and…" I find myself out of air for a moment, so I cough.

Dreamer grunts, clearly amused. "Well, the root of all existence would certainly fetch you a pretty penny. Too bad you didn't collect sooner." He shifts somewhat before continuing. "Some pretty tall orders. I can actually stand this time around, but I don't think I was _ever _that tall."

"You shouldn't expect to live up to everything I could ever hope for… There's a lot I hope for."

"…I can't help but be curious. What would you do with Keiichi, I wonder?"

I pause for a long while before eventually responding. "I'd just want him to make everyone happy."

"…Is that what you really want? Or what you _should _want?"

"…"

"The first step towards-"

"I get it…" I sigh. "…Satoko was right. When she said he could solve everyone's problems. He even solved mine. Back when I gave up everything… Back when I was like this."

"I take it it's more complicated now."

"For the most part." I respond dryly.

"…Back where I'm from, I was a coward. I let all of my friends die so I could save myself. At the end of the day, dying wasn't even enough to set most of them free. They all came back to haunt me in one way or another. So I made it my mission to resolve all of the loose ends I created, and all of the loose ends resolving _those _loose ends created. I spent forty years trying to make amends. But the moment I believed it all to be over, it was only just beginning. I didn't take responsibility until it was far too late – I changed the fates of many, but ultimately, no one I cared about could be saved… That's why, now, I need you to tell me what you want more than anything else."

"…Isn't this enough?"

"_Is _this enough?"

"…It's not. It's never going to be."

"Stop thinking of what you think you should."

"…It's never been enough. I always wanted more." I admit. "There was never a world perfect enough. There was never an end that I could accept. There was never a result I was pleased with. But that was only because I didn't want anyone to suffer in the end. But…"

"But you don't believe that anymore?"

"We're so close to the end now that it doesn't matter anymore. But there was never any way." There was simply no way – there was no way to save my friends. Either they all lived on and I suffered, or I lived on and their own pent up self hatred would eventually burst. In the end there was no way out – and it was no one's fault but our own. Fate has nothing to do with it – our end is nothing short of predetermined, but in the end it's only that way because of our own mistakes.

Either I gave up what I wanted or the others did. And eventually, no matter how much time went by, everything would ultimately converge on the same point – the end of everything, when every dam bursts and there's nothing left to hold back the truth.

"I'll ask you again… What do you want?" He repeats himself again. I can't understand why – he understands my circumstances. At this point perhaps even better than I did. But even then, he asks that question.

What do I want?

What do I want that drives everyone else off the edge of despair and into a pit of loneliness no human being should ever be subject to?

Isn't it obvious?

"…There are weaknesses in every human being, some of which line up identically no matter who you are or where you come from." He suddenly goes off on a tangent. "By giving in to such things, no matter who you are or where you come from, you will be subject to them and their whims for the rest of your life. Such is what makes humans what they are."

"…I'm not about to deny something so obvious… But can I…" I hesitate to complete my thought.

Can I live with that? Can I live with indulging in something that so many others deserve more than I do?

A better question would be – where would I be right now if I _couldn't _live with that?

This whole time I've been fighting. Fighting something that couldn't be beaten. Nebiros couldn't die, no matter how hard I tried to kill her.

But I understand now.

Why when the cicadas cry that there are no survivors.

Because all along I've been fighting my own shadow.

I had to either accept the things I'd been denying for so long or overcome them.

And fighting endlessly like this wouldn't overcome anything.

I couldn't reject what made me human. Not anymore.

I knew now – why I'd thrown my humanity away before.

It wasn't because I didn't think I could protect my friends.

It was because I was afraid I'd keep hurting them.

I had to accept the most simple truth –

I love Keiichi, body and soul. And there was no giving up that truth – not for anything, and not for anyone.

And by accepting that, the only path to the one, true, and final solution could become clear.

I had to accept that love – that love I'd shunned for so long, that love that I feared would destroy me, that love that killed my friends over and over again.

And so…

The only way I could come to the only solution left is to –

"…I can't hide this anymore. I'm sorry, but if I lie to either of us anymore, I think I'd lose my mind-"

I don't even get to finish my sentence before we kiss – it's all so sudden, as these things tend to be, but in this mere act alone – let alone in the act that will inevitably and immediately follow – there's more meaning than I could ever have imagined.

I'd already lost my mind – a long time ago, at that. Just like the others had – this was a reality that none of us wanted to accept, but a reality that we all had to.

We were all weak, in more ways than one. But this was the one way we were all truly weak.

If anyone tried to deprive us of this love – this escape from our personal darkness – we'd kill them without a second thought.

That was why – that was why the cicadas cried. And in the several hours that follow, the cicadas continue to cry.

I almost knew, then – I almost knew everything. I felt as though I was close enough to the answer.

Takano had been subject to the same thing as I had – she'd been deprived of love and had taken her terror out on the entire village.

But she wasn't the only one. She wasn't the only one who could've brought about a terrible end to Hinamizawa.

No – there was no way that she could have. She simply isn't cruel enough. She isn't twisted – she is only lost and confused.

Her slaughter isn't endless. Her slaughter is only a small part of the whole. Takano is destined for sadness, but not because of something like fate.

It's because of love. It's for the same reasons that Jack the Ripper killed so many in the name of the Sonozaki Family. It's for the same reasons that Shion kills so many, and the same reasons for Rena's personal massacre.

It's all because of love – love is at the source of it all. And if I could understand that much then –

Then the truth would become clear.

Are we all capable of murder? Perhaps. But are we all senseless killers? No.

Takano's disaster is the eternal testament to her own sorrow. But the way things are right now, her disaster is dwarfed by the one that my friends and I created all on our own.

Demons and angels? Gods and deities? Does any of it matter?

Hinamizawa ended because of us – because of all of us.

And the one ultimately responsible isn't 'fate'

The killer… The one who condemns us to our fate time and time again, is –

…

The following morning, or rather, noon that next day, I finally wake from my sleep. Dreamer is nowhere to be seen, but it was doubtful that he had run off – he was probably out buying more food. I wasn't exhausted from the previous night or anything – I wasn't human enough for that sort of thing.

But eventually he comes through the door, a little too quickly.

"What's wrong?" I catch the urgency in his face immediately.

"I found this in the mailbox outside." He tosses me an opened envelope – he'd probably read the letter already.

I read the front of the envelope – there's no return address and the letter is addressed directly to me. How, I wonder, would someone possibly know where I was hiding out? Was this from Astaroth or someone in league with him?

I remove the letter from the envelope and start to read it – it's extremely short, barely even a letter at all. It seems to be more of a poem than anything else:

_To the bird, last remaining, who carries our will of fire_

_To the depths of the world you must go_

_Beneath the Sahara sands, deep within the lair of the mad king_

_Lies the truth within the truth_

_The answer to the uncertainties of your nightmares_

_And the path to the future_

_You so desperately seek_

_Your least conspicuous ally, Madam Shicksal_

"Madam… Shicksal?"

"Think of Shicksal as a mafia family for witches. Madam Shicksal is their leader… It looks like you've got more support than we thought."

"But… The Sahara Desert? What's there?"

"Simply put, it's the tomb of Tutankhamen we're looking for."

"But…Why there?"

"Certainly you know what the 'nightmares' Madam Shicksal talks about are… Can't you take an educated guess?"

"…"

"We should leave immediately. If my guess is correct, whatever we're going to find there is going to become our ace in the hole."

An ace in the hole – a way to get around the end of the world?

A letter from a stranger, filling me with such strong hope –

Why does this seem so ironic?

"But how are we going to get to the Sahara Desert in any reasonable amount of time?"

"Whatever Astaroth is planning, he won't get around to pulling any of it off without you present."

"But where could he possibly have gone off to? It's not as though I can return to the corridor at will."

"I have a feeling we'll find out soon enough – we've got one lead, let's just stick to that for now."

I decide that it's best to do as Dreamer says.

Whatever awaited us in the Sahara Desert, if it meant there was still hope for the end of Astaroth's scheme and the impending apocalypse, I had no problems with spending the rest of my life trying to get there if that was what it took.

With renewed hope, I prepare to once again venture beyond the veil of what I knew to be possible...

* * *

_Sahara Desert, Tomb of Tutankhamen_

The strangest part of all of this wasn't the fact that I had made a journey to the Sahara Desert to chase after a Japanese deity, nor was it the notion of blasting open the side of an ancient Egyptian pyramid that had been standing for centuries.

It was instead what was inside, at the bottom of a long and winding staircase that seemed to go on forever, that made all of this seem like a completely fabricated dream. But it was all real – all of it, including the suspicions I had the moment I laid eyes on the man who had survived down here under impossible conditions.

He sits in a destroyed seat of some sort - at one point it was likely a throne, but now it's little more than a glorified chunk of rubble sitting among the ruined insides of the pyramid.

But now all of that doubt is gone. The man before me is identical to the man of those visions. I recognize him immediately. The fact that he is here – the fact that he is still alive, astral projection or not, is all the proof that I'd ever need. He no longer wears the hat or the coat, only because they have been passed to someone else. He wears a strange sort of mask that only covers his eyes and part of his nose – it seems to give off the shape of a hawk's eyes and beak. He is wrapped in bandages, much like an Egyptian mummy, up to the torso. His face is virtually unchanged, but the skin on his neck and chest is rotting away – it's a gruesome sight, but he sits there, silently, not expressing even the slightest hint of pain.

On his back, though – on his back are two black wings, much like a bird's wings. Or rather, a crow's wings.

I then realize what he is supposed to resemble. He is supposed to resemble a crow. It made sense – after all, he was the Yatagarasu of the Furthest Past. And here he was, before me, thousands of years later.

I'm not sure what to say at first. I don't know how to approach someone whose simple existence has me so stunned. But he eventually speaks all on his own.

"I was beginning to wonder if the last of the Furude had already perished… It would seem that my doubts were misplaced." His voice is the same as well, although a bit rougher. "Welcome to the Bowels of Eternity – the Azure Hollow."

"Azure…Hollow?"

"It has been many, _many_ years. But at last you stand before me as the last of your clan."

"You've been…Waiting for me? For how long?"

"Have you lost track of time?" He speaks with somewhat of a low chuckle. "Your path began five hundred thousand years ago – I must say, no Furude has been so unwilling to accept their fate. Not since the earliest days of this endless tradition have I seen such futile resistance. But sadly it's far too late now – your fate is sealed no matter which path you take."

Had it really been that long? I was beginning to wonder myself – but more importantly, the disaster I've been trying to avoid took place in 1983. It was 2036 now –

It then occurred to me – there is only one Yatagarasu of the Furthest Past. And that is this man. This place must be the same as the Akarana Corridor – a place removed from time where the resident is subject to endless time for eternity.

"Futile resistance? And what's this about my fate?"

"Surely you must know by now what forces you seek to meddle with. You are here to accept the futility of the sheer force of will, are you not?"

"…"

"For countless millennia I have tended to the Furude clan. From the moment of its inception I had a hand in granting your ancestors the land you called home. And the moment this vicious cycle began I knew when and how it would end – that time is now."

"You're saying the cycle will end with me?"

"Of course – after all, everything is going to end when you ascend past your limit."

"My limit?"

"Those in your family line are cursed. They always have been cursed. They are cursed to this cycle of pain. But they all break free – they all ascend past their limits and achieve their new tomorrow. And they are enlightened to the futility of it all. They bear children. Their children are raised to live life to the fullest. And in the same way the children are cursed. And they too will one day break free. But the cycle goes on… But now…"

"Now?"

"You are about to fulfill your role. You are about to ascend to the highest height and battle with the devil – your goal is to bring him to justice. You will fail, but he will verify your worth. You will be granted your precious tomorrow. But even then this world is about to expire."

"The Frozen Flame… It's will?"

"Precisely. That which gave your existence meaning wishes for all existence to come to a close. Your cycle is eternal – but the moment you break free, you will find no tomorrow to face. There will be no revenge left unsatisfied. There will be no fate left to deal. This is the final time – the final time I will bear witness to a Furude challenge fate directly."

"You mean… My final battle with Astaroth?"

"If that is what awaits you at the top of the mountain, then yes, that is the case. But in the end it doesn't matter. I'm sure that fool knows that the end is nigh as well – he knows that there is no meaning in any of this, and soon the world itself will come to terms with that. Your cycle may be a source of endless pain – but do not forget that your pain is mutual. The entire world hinges in the balance – such is the nature of the Frozen Flame. Such is the nature of the force driving this universe."

"So my goal is to fight him. But you say I'm destined to fail."

"It is impossible to challenge that which weaves your destiny. It is impossible for humanity to ascend to godhood – to violate this cycle is to violate the will of the Frozen Flame itself. The fundamental law of the universe revolves around your failure. Such is the case with every Furude. Such has always been the case."

"So that's it? I aim for the top, but no matter what happens I'm knocked back down?"

"As I've already told you – you're far too late. Perhaps if you let go of your bliss of humanity earlier than you may have been able to live slightly longer. But even if you take the path that will lead you to your fight with destiny there is no meaning in any of it."

The moment he said that it all 'had no meaning' I was ready to chew him out. I'm not sure why everyone has an obsession with that idea these days, but it's quite possibly the most infuriating thing of all.

"I'm sick of hearing about impossibility. About futility."

"You think that such things are up to interpretation?"

"The very idea of something being impossible is subjective in the first place. There's no objectivity to such a word – impossible? Futile? Try 'harder than it's worth' or 'outside what I'm willing to do.'"

"So… even now you refuse to acknowledge the reality of the Frozen Flame." He sighs.

"The Frozen Flame is fate incarnate. I get all of that. But then again, I think I've been doing this long enough to know that the future isn't written. The future never _should _be written. There are endless possibilities, and even if many of them converge on the same point they're still possibilities. The Frozen Flame has a will – a will defined in the same vein as my own. Well, as far as I'm willing to give a damn, my will and its will are the complete opposite."

"There's no sense in opposing that which defines your very existence."

"Then why wouldn't it simply erase me right now? If the future is written, why let things go this far to begin with?"

"The Frozen Flame's will is unknown to us all. There is reason in the choices it makes."

"And that's precisely the point – if there's any meaning to a word like fate, all it boils down to is a series of choices someone makes. Sealing your fate is nothing more than taking responsibility for your actions. And if the Frozen Flame wants to erase everything then it'll just have to erase me before I erase _it._"

"…What is your purpose in coming here? Clearly, your perception is warped enough that –"

"I'm going to challenge fate head on. I'm going to defeat fate. I'm going to make a world where _no one _has to be tied down to such an idea. I'm going to make fate change its ways."

He laughs. It seems so uncharacteristic, but he laughs. "You intend to treat the Frozen Flame, the origin of all things that have ever and would have ever existed, as _human_?"

"I'm here to put an end to all of this. The Frozen Flame makes choices. There's motivation behind all of those choices. It doesn't matter that I don't understand why – I don't need to understand why. What am I going to do? I'm going to defeat Astaroth. I'm going to corner Nebiros. I'm going to reach out to the Frozen Flame and make it open its heart. I'm going to make it understand me. I'm going to show it the error of its ways. I'm going to save the world."

At that moment, Dreamer appears at my side. "Beautifully said. You should write an autobiography after this." He takes a step forward. "There's no sense in trying to avoid your role in things. Doing so only proves her point even further."

"I have no intention of neglecting my duties. If you truly believe such folly will ever amount to anything, then perhaps your dying moments will be unique in their own right. But it will never matter."

"You're wrong." I deny him flatly. "…You've always been wrong, haven't you?"

"Whatever do you mean?" He's feigning ignorance – he knows exactly what I'm talking about.

"The Frozen Flame isn't what you seem to so absolutely believe it is."

"And what makes you think so?"

"You're hiding. You're hiding from your responsibility. You're hiding from having to decide for yourself and calling your cowardice your fate." My eyes narrow. For a moment I'm almost entirely like Bernkastel. "You seem to think of humans as petty as the dirt on your shoes. But you alone are something entirely worse. Perhaps even worse than nothing."

His previously uncaring expression seems to falter for all of a moment.

"…Your path is down below." He waves his arm and a staircase emerges from the floor beneath him, descending downward into the darkness below. He dodges my statement rather completely. "The Azure Hollow lies below. The purpose of this place is to fulfill the prophecy – 'the Blue Bird shall face the Crawling Chaos in mortal battle, and the path once closed will open.' Complete the trials below and you shall become the Blue Bird. From then, your destination is the end of the world – the path will open, and you will be led to the End of Time, a place of non-existence at the heart of the Akarana Corridor… He is already waiting for you there."

"Very well then…" Dreamer suddenly vanishes – and in a flash takes the cannon form of the Velvet Death on my arm.

"Three trials, I take it?" I don't receive a response so I assume I'm correct.

Without offering another word to the Yatagarasu, I descend the stairs before me.

"…There are four trials." He suddenly speaks just before I'm out of earshot. "And I assure you, failure is not an option."

* * *

_Depth: -500 cubits  
__The First Trial – The Torrential Tribute_

After descending the nearly endless set of stairs, I come to a wide open room – it's the size of an atrium, but more importantly there's the lack of solid floor beneath me. A small walkway extends from the entrance of the room and seems to extend further into the darkness.

"Looks like a simple balance test."

_It's definitely not just that. Be careful. We don't know what happens if you fail._

"…"

I consider that for a moment before I run across the walkway, taking as little care in my movements as possible. I'm implanted with lord knows what to the point where this sort of challenge is no challenge whatsoever. Of course the path mysteriously cuts off altogether once I've followed it for around five minutes or so. I double back – only to find that the path behind me has vanished, leaving me on a small square tile barely large enough to stand on in the middle of nowhere.

"Ah, here we go."

_From the left… Wait, no, from the… Alright, get ready – you're surrounded on all sides._

"By _what_?"

_I'm going to guess fast projectiles. In other words, either you failed and you're about to die, or you have to somehow avoid getting riddled with holes._

"Sounds fun."

I hear several loud clicks – the sound of arrows being shot from a crossbow. Being as augmented as I was, I could somewhat read the timing. First the ones below the platform would collide. Then the ones to the sides, and then the ones above me.

I move into action. The first wave pelts the bottom of the platform and I'm left unharmed. The next wave of them fires less than a second afterward. I jump to avoid them – but how would I manage to avoid the arrows raining down on me? Simple – I land on the platform, the arrows no more than three feet above my head. I jump off of the platform, grabbing onto the edge – then I swing myself upward so both of my legs latch on to the other sides of the platform and my head is safely untouched by the arrows. My free hand isn't as lucky, but I'm physically strong enough to take the pain. I maneuver myself back on top of the platform as a row of tiles suddenly appears and a light seems to switch on, showing me the staircase further downward.

_You got lucky. _

"You're the one who got lucky. You're made of metal. You didn't have a care in the world."

He sighs and I smile slightly as I head further into the bowels of the pyramid.

* * *

_Depth: -1000 cubits  
__The Second Trial – The Door to Darkness_

The second level of the Azure Hollow was somewhat different from the previous – it was separated from the first by a massive spiral staircase, but towards the bottom the walls seemed to be lined with glowing, blue vein-like structures that seemed to sprawl across the lime walls like vines. Another thing of note was the clear lack of hieroglyphic drawings on these walls – it was fairly clear that this section of the tomb was clearly _not _constructed by the ancient Egyptians. Not that I have any clue how they could've managed to install a death trap like the one I just cleared on their own either.

_Well at least this place is pretty to look at._

"Yeah, if you find glowing blue veins to look pretty."

…_You know, I WAS detained in an empty room with tons of grey for a good ninety years or so. _

"Huh… Well, if you put it that way…"

Suddenly a blue flame appears above me – I almost think to shoot it but it suddenly heads down the now straightened staircase.

_You should, you know, probably follow it, or something?_

I sigh before I run after the flame – the staircase seems to go on forever, but the flame keeps on moving.

Eventually it gets to the point where I'm somewhat exhausted. I'd been running for the good part of thirty minutes non-stop and the flame seemed to be picking up speed every so often. There were limits to how fast I could go and how long I could go despite my augmentation – but right around the point where I was reaching my slow-down point the flame stops. It then expands and the area around me is lit even further –

Only a few feet away is a massive set of double doors that seem to stretch to the ceiling. Without any hesitation I push them open and step into the pitch black room behind them. Once my eyes focus I see a dim light far in the distance, but it doesn't seem to light up the room much or at all.

"Ok… So what's this one about?"

_You can't see a thing, right?_

"You don't think…"

_I'd assume the floor has fallen out in places. You should probably head towards that light off in the distance. I'm not sure how elaborate the maze is, but it has to be solvable to some extent._

"Maybe I can just jump it?"

_Doubtful… You wouldn't happen to have emergency lights or something, would you?_

"You're acting like they wouldn't have gone the other night if I had any."

_Hey, you never know._

I sigh with frustration as I walk across the seemingly invisible floor.

I find myself reaching the edges of the platforms beneath me several times as I proceed through the dark maze, but I manage to find the correct path forward without much difficulty. The path is long and seems to go in circles at times, but I continue to follow the path, knowing that an end had to be in sight. Part of the trial here likely had to do with patience – how many times could one be willing to circle a single area of such a massive room with their ultimate destination just out of reach?

Eventually I come to the literal end of the road – the dim light is much brighter now and much closer – it's directly ahead of me. All I had to do was keep going straight – but I couldn't. The path had abruptly stopped. I would have to jump – but with no way to gauge where the platform continued I'd literally be taking a leap of faith if I did much of anything.

"Any ideas?"

_I would just go for it. _

"_That's _your best idea? I could've come up with that one too, you know."

_So you haven't realized it yet, huh?_

"…What're you keeping me in the dark about this time?" I sigh with frustration as I realized I'd made a really stupid pun without really intending to.

_I'm a cannon. That's pretty much all I should have to tell you._

"…" My eyes light up as I suddenly realize what he's getting at. "…So I jump, shoot you, and hope my momentum added to the recoil from the cannon shot will send us flying into the light?"

_That's about it._

"Worth a shot, I suppose."

I have to make the timing for this absolutely perfect…

I jump with as much force as my mechanical enhancements allow me to. I'm sent straight towards the light, which only starts to glow brighter –

From this angle the light is shining a certain way. I see it – where the platform continues. I'm going to be just out of reach, but if I fire the cannon at the right moment, I can get across.

I turn midair, waiting to reach the height of my jump – and as I do, I fire Velvet Death, the recoil from doing so extending my air time slightly and pushing me closer towards the platform at the same time I quickly turn back around, now an extremely short distance from the platform as I descend.

I manage to barely grasp the edge of the platform, pulling myself up with as much force as I could muster.

_That wasn't so bad._

"We almost missed."

_But we didn't._

"That's a good point, I guess."

I head forward, towards the light, a staircase down becoming visible the closer I get –

And then suddenly I'm robbed of my victory as the light vanishes entirely and the floor beneath me falls away. I'm cast into the darkness below, hardly even being able to register what had happened.

* * *

_Depth: -3000 cubits  
__The Third Trial – The Prophet's Descent_

But as I descend, suddenly the space around me is lit up – the walls are lined with enough blue and white lights to emulate the lighting of a stadium, and the sheer size of the room made it seem like three or four stadiums put together. Far beneath me is what appears to be a large, circular platform – but heading my way were what seemed to be crows – hundreds, possibly thousands of crows with glowing yellow eyes, flying straight up towards me.

_Oh-ho!_

"What?! And why do you sound so excited?!" I shout, the sound of the crows' caws sharply invading my ears.

_It's a vertical shooter! Ah, I always loved these kinds of games!_

"I'd hate to pull your head out of the clouds here, but we're not exactly playing a _game _right now."

_A-Ah, right. I got a little ahead of myself there. Sorry. The best way out of this is to shoot our way towards the bottom. I hope you can manage to hit that platform down there without much trouble. _

"What if I can't survive this fall?"

_You can, don't worry about that._

"You sound confident."

_As long as you aim, I won't miss. Let's get this one over with – I'm starting to get vertigo._

"You're a cannon strapped to my arm. How is that even possible?"

_Oh, look, a horde of crows that don't give a damn. I'd hate to end our riveting conversation but we've got work to do now, I'm afraid!_

"You're not dodging my question!" I shout at him as I take aim and fire several volleys of shots towards the crows, successfully hitting several of them and moving out of the way of several more without taking a hit. "I know absolutely nothing about you – and how many times have I slept with you again?"

_Uh… six, as of the last time I kept count?_

"And I don't even know how your whole…cannon…thing… even works!" I fire off several more shots, pulverizing more crows with each shot. The platform beneath me seems much closer as I continue to close in on it, the distance between us still extremely vast. I had to be falling at a rate of at least twenty miles per hour now….

_What makes you think that I would? I just sort of do it. It comes with being a two hundred year old dark avenger._

"Pfft… What's the _last thing_ you avenged?"

_Your –_

"If you say anything sexual I'm going to… cut you off or something." I fire several more shots towards the crows – one of them grazes my side while another one manages to ram into my stomach, but I'm only set off course slightly and manage to regain my bearings.

_You'd probably lose your own arm if you even tried that. Face it, girl – you're stuck with me. _

"Just shut up, alright? Or else I'll think of something to ram up your barrel."

_NOW who's saying something sexual?  
_

"That's not… W-Why the fuck are you so annoying?!" I fire more rounds towards the next wave of incoming crows – these shoot back at me with small yellow bullets, barely large enough for me to see coming. I manage to get hit by one or two of them, but I manage to stay the course.

_Oh, so I can't be witty, I can't be annoying, and it seems I can't be on top either –_

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut _up_!" I fire more shots a tad more wildly now – and in a matter of seconds I find myself with a lack of crows to shoot.

The platform closes in as I ready myself to land –

* * *

_Depth: -5000 cubits  
__The Fourth Trial – The Witch Hunter's Circle_

I manage to land without dying, much to my amazement. I'd seemingly fallen thousands of feet, but I managed to come out of it just fine.

I look ahead – I'm not sure how I hadn't noticed before, but there was something very wrong with the scene before me.

Ahead was what seemed to be a golem – a large, metallic robot sort of thing that I was probably supposed to have fought – left in tatters on the ground, its limbs scattered about the floor. And standing a few feet behind the rubble was Nero, her head evidently split open somewhere with blood running down the side of her face with her meat cleaver in hand.

She smiles at me. "Aah… Now _that's _the look I wanted to see. So you can finally think for yourself now? Good; I was sick of your ignorant bitch face the first time I saw you."

"I take it you cleared the fourth trial for me. How nice of you."

"How wonderful… the bitch can still talk me down… You know how this is gonna end, right?"

"I kick your ass in every way imaginable?"

She brandishes her cleaver. "…You don't know what this is, do you?"

"It's a meat cleaver."

"This weapon had a pretty fancy name back in the day – it's the Blade of Totsuka. Used to belong to your mom, if I recall correctly."

"My mother…? What are you even saying? She didn't –"

"Right, right – I forgot, you still don't know any of the meaty details. But let's put it this way – if you get past me, you'll have your shot at your perfect ending that's never gonna happen in a thousand years and we both know it."

"I take it this is going to be our last fight together?"

She swings the cleaver, evidently named Totsuka. "I'd prefer it if I'd been able to come here wearing my best – but you see, I just wanna kill you _soo baadly…_"

I ready Velvet Death. "Your bloodlust is a pretty crappy gimmick. I'll give you five seconds to come up with a better one."

"I'll give you five seconds to _shut your bitch face before I sew it shut!_"

She lunges towards me, faster than I'm prepared for her to. I manage to back away and fire Velvet Death, but she avoid my shot far too easily and follows up with a swing – I use Velvet Death to block, issuing a grunt from Dreamer, and in the next moment I try to push her away.

She's a step ahead of me and manages to spin around me, sinking the Totsuka into my back. I gasp from the pain – the blade seemed to hurt much more than I had expected it to. There must have been some supernatural property to it.

She grinds the sword into my back – she doesn't stab me fatally, nor does she take advantage of her opportunity to do so. I let out another gasp and try to pull away, but she holds me back, wrapping her free arm around my waist and pulling me toward her.

She giggles. "How dirty… You wanna moan for me some more?" She laughs into my ear as she rips the blade out of my back and swings it again – this time it was most definitely aimed for my head.

I shoot Velvet Death towards the ground, shaking her off of my and propelling myself into the air. I aim downward again, this time taking advantage of the sudden change in height and firing off another shot. She manages to avoid it all the same however, and I'm forced to land on her terms –

I try aimlessly to fire another shot, perhaps to scare her off, but she stands ready to cut me up the moment I touch the ground. I land, and as she moves her blade to swing I block it off entirely with Velvet Death. I then aim to punch her squarely in the stomach, but she backs off quickly enough.

I can't regain my bearings – I have to keep pursuing her. I can't give her time to recover. But each time I move close she moves further away, and the more I put on the pressure the more she lets off. It's as though we're acting against each other in perfect equilibrium – for every step I take, she takes a step back. For every attack I make, she negates it with an impervious defense. We were simply too in-tune to beat each other.

But eventually I can't keep up – I simply don't have the reflexive capability to go on for as long as she has and I've been bio engineered for this sort of thing while she's just Rena.

But then again, being 'just Rena' meant quite a deal. For there was no one in Hinamizawa that burned as brilliantly as Rena. She was more capable of causing our disaster than anyone else.

It gets to the point where I just can't keep up with her at all – I miss my shots by much larger margins and she misses me by far smaller margins. The fight becomes incredibly one sided – but I'm still alive. I can't give up…

Eventually I'm backed against the edge of the platform. There's room on either side of me to dodge to, but if I do I'll just get sliced by Totsuka.

"Aand here we are. It was fun, Serika-tan, believe me. But sadly all good things come to bloody, unfortunate ends." She presses the tip of the blade against my throat.

"I guess picking a fight with you never _did _end well in the past."

"Hm…? When did we ever fight? I've always _loved _you, despite how cold hearted a bitch you've been over the years." Her mouth says one thing, her eyes something else entirely.

"I just need to know. Why are you letting this happen? Surely you know by now – you're not going to end up with Keiichi no matter what happens now."

"Hm… I just _need_ to know. Why are you such an oblivious hag?" Her eyes narrow as she suddenly shifts her sword and pushes me off the edge of the platform with the hilt of the sword.

And once again I find myself falling – but now I had nowhere to land.

_Well then… I think we're effectively out of options here._

"She didn't kill me… She just pushed me off…"

_You expected her to kill you outright? She IS Rena, you know. She cherishes her friends more than anything else in the world. _

"…Then I suppose I failed after all."

_Oh, I don't think you failed, per se. But in the event that we DO somehow get out of this alive, you'll definitely be more on the… 'succeeding' side of things._

I close my eyes – I had to think of something. I was free falling and would likely hit the ground before too long. After all, there was an end to everything – no pit is truly bottomless.

I find myself wondering –

Rena is still Rena. No matter how perverse her personality has become.

So then…

If Rena was subject to this same endless cycle of pain that I was, even if only in brief flashes –

Then it made sense.

It made sense for her to want me dead more than anything else.

But she didn't kill me outright…

Why?

..

..

…

It then finally occurs to me.

There is no such thing as fate. There isn't anything that ties you down to your destiny. Rena is cruel deep down, and only because of the one thing that started all of this.

But not even just _this _– the tragic story of Riku Furude. Hanyuu's betrayal and her lost hope. It's all a part of the same thing – the same thing that brought me here. The same thing that made all of this possible.

Love – love that both nurtures gently and destroys heartlessly.

Nero wasn't some bastardized version of my friend.

I'd already know for the longest time that the two were one and the same.

And it's because of this –

I finally understood.

We're all people. And no matter how we treat others we're all ultimately the same in that one regard. We have the capacity to show compassion and strengthen the hearts of others. And we have the capacity to fear for our own.

And so Rena, being who she always was –

There was no changing things. There was no 'saving' her. Such a thing would fundamentally change who she was. And I could never live with doing such a thing.

The one, true, and infallible solution to all of this, to Rena's inner chaos and to our helpless situation is –

A blinding light. A sudden gust of wind. And beneath me, appearing out of the darkness, was a small blue light – no larger than the palm of my hand.

Instinctively I reach out for it, and –

Before me appears what seems to be a mask – a blue mask, with a bird's beak and what seemed to be long, pointed ears. It was shaped much like the mask that the Yatagarasu had worn. I reach out towards it – it's very much real, but the moment I touch it my fingers are hit with a burning sensation.

With some slight hesitation, I place the mask upon my face –

And my entire body is engulfed in some sort of blue fire – but I don't feel anything.

And then, from within the fire, metallic armaments wrap around my entire body – gauntlets around my arms and legs, some strange metallic pieces underneath my heels, and twin thin metal pieces sticking out of my back. The mask seems to grow, taking the form of an entire helmet that surrounds my head. The eye holes are replaced by a glass shield that covers my face up to the ridge of my nose. The Velvet Death on my arm seems to dissolve before transforming into what seemed to be a much smaller and much more futuristically appearing rifle strapped to my arm as opposed to completely covering it.

I find myself no longer falling – and out of the metallic slots on my back emerge two wings made of that same blue fire, with a wingspan nearly the length of an eagle's, slowly carrying me upward.

_Ah, I see…. A blue bird indeed. _

Dreamer's face appears in some transparent form in the bottom right corner of the glass screen.

_Oh ho… It seems I've upgraded to cable, finally. Pretty snazzy. DSL was killing me. _

Eventually I emerge from under the platform – Nero doesn't look surprised at all.

"It's about damn time. I thought you were going to make me wait another hundred years."

She readies the Totsuka as I descend towards her, still not entirely moving of my own free will. I swoop downward towards her, readying the Velvet Death – and I fire countless shots in extremely quick succession before flying back upward and completely out of her range.

_Woah there… I'm not sure I can help you steer…yourself… but –_

"Don't worry." I say, my voice sounding slightly strange at first. "I think… I think I can manage."

I feel as though I'm free falling without really moving in any direction at all. I seem to move almost as though I'm falling through the sky, although I'm able to move upward. I've never been on a plane, but I had to assume that the sensation felt something like this. I'm constantly hit by air pressure as I move about, but it doesn't do much of anything to me – my flaming wings seem to arc as majestically as a birds and adjust for everything and react to everything as though they'd been on my shoulders my entire life.

I dive down towards Nero again, firing more volleys of shots from the Velvet Death. She manages to avoid them, but on my next dive she tries to attack – unlike before, now it's gotten to the point where she can't hit me at all. I've already scoped out her range perfectly – and I can attack her freely from the air.

But I couldn't kill her with bullets. The only way I could stop her was to –

_Keep an eye out._

"I know…" I dive towards her again, this time firing off shots once I've gotten quite a bit closer to her. In the moment that she moves her blade to block the shots she couldn't outright dodge, I make my move.

I dive further in. She doesn't suspect a thing – she expects me to move out of her range again. She hasn't had enough time to come up with a counterattack and we both know it.

I drive straight into her, making a move primarily for her right arm –

And just like that I snatch away Totsuka, and kick off of her, knocking her to the ground. I spiral upward before diving straight down, pointing the blade of Totsuka straight down towards her –

And in an instant it's all over. She laughs, quite possibly as loud as her vocal chords would allow as Totsuka plunges into her heart with my weight and the weight of my armor behind it. The blade manages to pierce her all the way though, cracking the marble platform underneath her.

"Fantastic… Better than sex, even…!" She grunts, coughing up a significant amount of blood. "I'd say you're about ready to get your shit wrecked by Asty… But you've got too many loose ends for that to happen so quickly."

"I just want to know… Why?"

"Why what? Why all of this?"

"You were going to let him end the world. How could that possibly be what you want?"

She shakes her head in admonishment, her devilish grin still apparent. The rest of her expression, however, didn't betray her mortal wound. "My will was always someone elses."

"What do you mean?"

"You haven't figured it out yet…?" She coughs up more blood. "…I was never quite as flashy as you two show-offs, but it looks like I'm a hell of a lot smarter than you, at least."

"I don't understand… Please, just tell me what you're trying to get at."

"All this time… Asty's been trying to tell you something. And now you finally get to hear it…" Suddenly her expression degenerates into a painful one, her teeth grinding together as more blood seems to find its way up her throat. "But not from me… You've gotta go all the way first."

"Rena…"

"Don't call me that." She shuts her eyes tightly before another coughing fit. She then looks at me again, the fire in her eyes now all but completely snuffed out. "Do one thing for me, would you, Rika?"

"…What is it?"

"…Please." She asks sincerely, her eyes betraying the chaos in her heart and allowing me to see into what was left underneath. "…Save him."

With that, her heart finally gives way and Nero passes, her greed and the truth behind it all carried with her to the grave.

I pull Totsuka out of her chest – the sword somehow isn't bloodied. A few moments later the sword vanishes entirely.

_Don't worry. I can call that thing back for you at will. _

"Convenient…"

…_What's wrong?_

"…I have to ask you… Don't you feel anything after this?"

_What makes you think that I wouldn't? Twice now I've had to watch Rena die before my eyes, and twice now I've been the one responsible. _

"…Then how do you remain so calm?"

_Because I have to look after you… I betrayed you once, long ago. I won't betray you ever again. And no matter what I need to do to ensure that things will stay that way, I'll do it…_

"…I love you, Keiichi." I don't notice that I failed to call him 'Dreamer'.

_And I you. For now we have nothing else but that to keep us going – that's why we can't stop now._

"Right."

In a matter of moments, a pillar of light descends upon me from above. I only allow myself to be cast in the warm light for a few moments. I shake off my doubts and I take off, flying up towards it, finding myself leaving Rena behind once more.

This will be the last time. I promise.

Because I know now, what our disaster brought about – and now I know how to resolve it.

I fly into the light to the point where it blinds me – and then I find myself simply nowhere at all.

Everything is pitch black –

And then the familiar void of purple.

And then the cicadas.

And before I know it, my eyes are cast to the world of the Hinamizawa long since past.

Riku Furude stands there, with The Yatagarasu of the Distant Past at his side.

And as their tale once again unfolds, I once again stumble upon a vital truth…

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

For all two of you that are curious, yes, End Dreamer's age is adjusted signficantly. He basically has the same appearance he did during _End Dreamer_ in his mid twenties, aka during the bulk of the story and before the time skip at the end. His personality, however, is ripped straight from how he was by the end of the story, hence all of Serika's old man jokes (This is also good for those of you completely in the dark to know as well). For the record, Serika is nineteen, just in case this chapter made you forget temporarily.

Anyhow… Yeah, I really can't say anything else without giving important things away. I suppose I could just say that the next Riku Furude chapter is well into production and that'll be up… sometime in the future. Because I can't go back in time and post it in the past or something.


	16. G Chapter: Our Moment of Weakness

_**Author's Note**_

Ok, so here we are. It's been about a month since I last threw any kind of bone whatsoever, so here's the longest chapter in the story so far. At this point probably only the very end will be longer, but considering how this is the last Riku Furude chapter it's somewhat to be expected.

And if my math is correct, _Furthest Future _is now a few words short of being longer than _End Dreamer_. Hooray, I guess...?

For the sake of keeping the word count on this as low as possible, I'm going to end the note here. I'll have more to say at the very end to look forward to that.

* * *

**G Chapter – Our Moment of Weakness**

_Onigafuchi (June 1st)__  
__Riku Furude (Age: 40)_

There was once a time when the world wasn't afraid. But now is the time where courage and bravery do not exist. Now is a time where the line between demon and human has become so hazy that I can only fight in the name of what I believe is right and just. There is no motivation more powerful, at least as far as I had discovered.

Over the years things seemed to calm down, only in the sense that the entirety of our lives came down to living the same three months or so over and over while everything around us began to change. There were always demon attacks, even in some instances demons pretending to be human. Onigafuchi became a stronghold for human preservation even though there were demons amongst us, living with us relatively harmoniously.

Many of the families married the demon women of the Jaeda clan because they had no other suitors in the village. Kimiyoshi cut off his wife altogether and married one of Hanyuu's younger sisters, having several children and completely disregarding the child his previous wife ended up giving birth to on schedule, remaining close to the village for the span of his family's history. But in the aftermath of the sealing in the cave, no man in their right mind would marry into the Sonozaki family, especially after what Mao had done in the village before his untimely 'death'. Sonozaki family was forced into a scenario where the soon to be born daughter of Mao Sonozaki, who would ultimately be named after the father she never knew, was going to grow up with two mothers, one her human birth mother and the other a demon mother standing in for Mao.

Hanyuu gave birth to Ouka, who turned out to be the least tarnished of all the higher class children. She grew up despising Kimiyoshi's first son but was best friends with Mao until they turned eighteen, the age where they both promptly started ignoring each other. I'd learn much later that for three years leading up to their eighteenth birthdays the two of them had been secretly in love, seeing each other completely in secret and evidently having killed at least two people to keep things quiet, but called things off when they found themselves at an age where they'd need to secure husbands to keep their family lines going. Knowing that the other would be stoned if the secret was ever let out, they ended their longtime friendship to protect each other. It was far nobler than anything I ever did, although I doubt that Hanyuu could ever say the same.

The Frozen Flame remained a well protected secret. Yatagarasu remained in the village alone, never even leaving to secure a wife or ever even attend his father's somewhat official funeral. He stayed in the village, protecting the flame along with the rest of us. I've owed him considerably for the longest time, but I never really repaid him outside of granting him land and offering him potential brides, all of which he shot down. Either he was still carrying a torch for Chinami or there was something else going on that I wasn't aware of. He continued to fight alongside the rest of us as he always seemed to have, and in the end despite this age of darkness we seemed to be in we were never in any real danger.

Today was a day like any other – I was out in the swamp having fought demons all day and was returning home where Yatagarasu would generally be there to greet me. When Ouka was growing up, she was trained by him almost nightly – she would always be completely exhausted, but she was always the best. She couldn't be beaten by anyone in the village, not by any of the men either at that. But being the way things are she always ends matches with Mao in a tie, although whether or not it's intentional on both of their parts remains to be seen. Yatagarasu stopped training her when she turned seventeen and insisted that she could deal with things herself from that point, but even then he never seemed to stray too far from our family. I had decided long ago to assume that he was going to protect Hanyuu for the sake of the flame and had left it at that.

But what was the most peculiar thing was that he never seemed to age a day – he didn't age at all despite the jump in his age gap from the time we were both children to that time twenty years ago. Of course I was in no position to question the aging process of a deity, so I decided to once again leave it at that.

Upon my return today, Yatagarasu pulled me aside – or rather to the tallest hill overlooking the village. It was the summer time, and so the higanbanas – the spider lily flowers – were in full bloom. In our barren swamp this was the only flower that ever seemed to bloom. When Ouka was growing up we would bring her up here all the time so she could marvel at them. But as for why Yatagarasu wanted to bring me here now, I had no idea.

_But if I did –_

_Maybe if I did – _

_Then maybe things could've been different. _

His face was as pensive as ever – but something certainly seemed to be eating away at him.

"You're troubled." I point out the obvious.

"There's a time for being troubled, and unfortunately this isn't the time."

"What makes now different from any other day? Or any other summer for that matter?"

"You see, we've been… bringing demons to justice for quite a long time. Now, over the years I've had my reserves about these things, but –"

"But the situation's been normal. The numbers of demons have even been receding recently."

"It goes without saying that if you try to exterminate an animal that they'll eventually go extinct. I wonder… Just how many demons have you killed with that weapon?"

"I'll kill as many as I need to."

"And so we come to the point… You see, the way things are right now, Onigafuchi faces its greatest threat."

"Greatest threat…?"

His face is completely serious, his voice somewhat cold. "I know your pride will get in the way, but… For all intents and purposes, we must abandon Onigafuchi. The people need to scatter now before things get out of hand."

"Outrageous." I speak my mind. He wanted me to abandon the village I was born in and gave my entire life to on the grounds of our 'greatest threat'? I've never backed away from this village before – I won't start now.

He sighs. "I knew it…"

"The Sonozaki tunnels can house the people from any harm. Whatever threat we face we can –"

"You're not getting it."

"What aren't I getting?!" I raise my voice. "You want me to let this village burn to the ground and run away like a coward? That wasn't what got me here – that's certainly no solution I'd ever accept."

"You're only human, Riku."

"And you aren't. You're saying this threat is too much for you as well?"

"I've already told you – Amaterasu is dead. I am only as powerful as my individual self allows me to be."

"Look, I don't know what your situation is, but if you're saying the village can't pull through whatever it is –"

"The village _won't _pull through. If you don't accept my advice for what it is then there's –"

"You don't have much faith in me, do you?"

"The way you're talking right now? No, I don't."

"We've pulled through everything else –"

"You keep saying that, but it doesn't make your defeat in this upcoming battle any less inevitable."

"I refuse to abandon this land. Not for anything."

"Then this village will be burned to the ground."

"Trust me."

"I can't. And at the same time I consciously won't."

"Then how about this – I'll swear to you that no matter what happens, I'll pull through." I pull one of the spider lilies out of the ground. "Here, I'll swear on the flower of this village, the only flower that grows in such a desolate place – I swear that I'll pull through whatever comes my way."

"Have it your way… You can swear on the moon or the sun – it won't make a difference. Both are hollow and empty anyhow."

He turns to leave. "But do not forget. You had your opportunity to swallow your pride."

"But at the same time, you're one to talk? Wasn't your pride what led us to that stalemate all those years ago?"

"…Of all the things that you've come to possess over the years, the meaning of the word 'time' has not been one of them." He closes, walking off towards the village.

That evening Yatagarasu warned me of our greatest threat. But I could kill any demon that came my way.

But no more than two nights after that conversation did I realize what our greatest threat truly was.

Over time, the social field of our village had been changing. The human members, despite what the demon members had done for them in the past, seemed to shun their otherwise harmless neighbors. The Jaeda clan eventually stopped walking about freely and the diviners mostly took to the side streets and areas where they would not stand out as much. The humans married to them were the only people who would ever defend them, and so there was roughly an even split of people among the three groups. It was never enough to pose a problem, and so I never paid it any mind. No one took any shots at Hanyuu, so I decided to be lenient with the matter.

But two nights after that talk with Yatagarasu, Ouka came into my room late at night, practically bursting through the door.

"There's been a murder – Ryuugu Akiha's body was found mere minutes ago tied to a poll in the plaza." She says, her breath ragged and her voice somewhat exhausted. "Also, someone claims that Sonozaki Makise has gone missing. I would've been here sooner if I were not by the cliff-side with Kimiyoshi-san. My apologies."

I rise to my feet immediately. "Where is your mother?"

"She wasn't in her room – but she left this unattended." She presents the Onigari no Ryuou to me – Hanyuu's sacred sword, more valuable than the gold it was made from. She would never leave this behind under any circumstances.

"We need to head to the plaza. The sooner we move the body the better –"

"It's already too late. A large crowd has gathered around it… I've never seen such close friends accuse each other of murder."

"What…?!"

"There hasn't been an incident like this in our village for years; you know that. It only makes sense that a sporadic incident like this would cause panic."

I don't waste any time path that point.

I head to the village plaza with Ouka in tow – and sure enough, tied to a metal poll situated at the very center of the was the mangled corpse of Akiha Ryuugu. And around her were villagers, all shouting at each other.

"It's impossible for any demon to have breached our walls! It must have been one of them!"

"What makes you so sure that a demon killed her? It could be anyone!"

"We need to round them all up! See which of them have Ryuugu-san's fresh blood on their fangs!"

"But which families are harboring the monsters?"

"We have to go one by one! Purge them individually; it's the only way!"

"Think about what you're doing! There's no sense in that!"

"He's right! The only demons are the women! Just kill all the women before someone else dies!"

"But what about their children?! The children have demon blood! We should kill them too!"

"One of them must have Sonozaki-san! Search all of their houses! Force your way in if necessary!"

"Where's Kimiyoshi?! He divorced his wife for a demon woman! What about Sonozaki and Yamanaka? Forget it, just round up the women and children! We have to get them eventually!"

They were all out of control. They were fighting each other even more viciously than my family used to bicker amongst itself when I was younger. But no matter who I told to stop shouting, three more voices took their place. There was no order to speak of – people eventually started grabbing others by the hair and the crowd slowly but very steadily became violent.

One by one they began to lose themselves in their irrational fear.

And there was nothing I could do.

But out of the blue, a voice several hundred octaves louder than the others rings out.

"_Silence!_" The voice belongs to Yatagarasu.

The crowd is pained by the loudness of his voice. And so they all stop to listen.

He's standing by the poll with the body. The crowd forms a circle around him but keeps its distance.

"All of you – for years we've lived beside one another, and _this _is what you've reduced yourselves to in a matter of moments?"

None protest him. They all know who he is – they all know that he's the black sheep amongst them, but at the same time that he is neither human nor demon – he was something else entirely. Something that they could not hate, only fear.

"This land was won for you by my father and his father, and every disciple of Amaterasu that ever came before us! And here you are, ready to burn the village you've worked so hard to create to the ground on a whim! As the Yatagarasu of this village, I have helped our goddess bring this village years of peace! But this – this is a far cry from the peace we have won."

Once again there is no response. No protest. Only recognition.

But something seemed slightly off from this speech of his…

"Demon and human could peacefully exist in this village – should we not aim for a future where such a reality is always within our reach?"

Voices finally speak up – voices that had been silenced before. Voices that had been silenced before. Voices that acted as voices of reason that sided with Yatagarasu. More of the crowd eventually joins in.

"I swear to you all by the sun that shines down upon us and the goddess that is mother to us all that I shall use the power invested within me to find the one responsible for this – they will face the justice that must be dealt to them… But first…"

He then searches the crowd for something –

"Bring Riku Furude forward." He announces.

I find myself being drawn to the center of the crowd, away from Ouka and towards Yatagarasu. Eventually I'm almost being pushed forward.

"It is because of the threat that faces us that I must demand that the gift bestowed on the Furude family be returned to its original owners. As my father no longer lives, I shall accept the Demon Slayer Kusanagi in his place."

"Is our 'greatest threat' truly worth all of this?" I ask him somewhat quietly.

"I believe you'll find that it is… But don't you trust me?"

"…The more I think about it, the more I realize I don't know anything about you." Despite my words, I remove Kusanagi from the sheath and hand him the blade.

As it passes to him, I hear a soft sound – the sound of something sizzling.

"And _that_, my friend, is why you must face your fate."

_There were so many things I didn't understand about him._

_Perhaps –_

_Perhaps if I had questioned those things –_

_Perhaps if I had tried to understand –_

_Perhaps this could have been avoided._

_It all seemed to have come completely out of nowhere._

_But –_

It is only then that I see it –

Along the ground that comprised this central plaza –

Long white lines, stretching from the edges of the street towards the center, making a pentagon shape around the pole with Ryuugu's body hanging from it –

I had seen these many times in the past. He would always make small versions of this shape for Ouka when she trained – he would create a small demon for her to fight.

Only later did I learn what this shape was and what it meant – only a few short weeks ago at that, when Hanyuu had been reading a scroll with details about it written down.

This shape was a pentagram – a shape used in demon summoning rituals.

The demon would appear at the center of the pentagram –

In exchange for some form of life. For Ouka's training demons it had always been a flower or something akin to that –

But in this situation, this pentagram covered the entirety of the plaza –

He slams Kusanagi's blade into the ground, at the dead center of the pentagram.

And in the distance, I hear Ouka's voice. She had apparently noticed it as well.

"Everyone, please! You have to leave now! He's going to summon a demon!"

Several people hear her and several people run –

But there are at least sixty villagers who have yet to move in the moment of confusion.

Just how large a demon… Could he possibly be summoning?!

I try to move into action, attempting to stop him with my bare hands – but he's behind some barrier. I can't touch him.

"Three thousand years ago, the Yatagarasu waged a full scale _war _to turn Onigafuchi, the domain of Demon King Helmai, into a realm for you humans." He suddenly speaks. "This swamp could have belonged to man and beast. But now man is more beast than the beasts themselves – therefore, this land shall be returned to the beast of beasts!"

A curtain of fire rises from the edge of the pentagram, preventing all those inside from leaving. The villagers start to panic –

And then one by one their bodies burn away. Every last one of them turns to ashes at my feet – all except for me. I stand near Yatagarasu, watching the horrid spectacle unfold.

And suddenly I'm knocked off my feet, onto the floor a few feet away. And from the ground beneath me rise several bony hands that root me to the ground – I try to break free, but their grips are far too strong.

All around me the ashes of the villagers rise out of the ground to form demons – humanoid demons, each one more ferocious looking than the last, and far more threatening in appearance alone than any demon I'd ever killed in my entire life.

In front of me, the body of Akiha Ryuugu suddenly bursts into flames – and from those flames descends a figure cloaked in a black robe, with pitch black eyes, and short crimson hair that seemed to be arranged unnaturally. His smile isn't demonic. It is simply condescending in every sense of the word. In fact, every detail about him seemed to suggest that he was human, but the fashion in which he had appeared indicated otherwise. In one of his hands was a long, golden sword, more like a normal katana in style than the Onigari was but likely just as powerful.

"Ah…" He sighs. "The air that humans breathe, the wind that blows… It's hard to believe that all of this was once mine."

"Your return is most abominable and serves as a death knell for us all." Yatagarasu says with as straight a face as possible before stepping away from the demon.

The demon raises his sword to the sky. "My brothers! At last our land is ours once more!"

The demons all roar with delight.

"For ages our land has been defiled by human hands – but no more! Our legion shall once again fill this land, and our legacy will be undying for all eternity!"

The demons begin and indecipherable chant – but I hear the name that Yatagarasu mentioned earlier several times.

_Helmai._

_Helmai._

This _must _have been the so called Demon King – Helmai.

"But first… I suppose the proper payment is in order… Yatagarasu of the Distant Past, step forward."

Yatagarasu moves from his place to the side and kneels before the Demon King.

"You are the lowest of the low. Amongst our ranks you are beneath even the Garms! But you have ensured that our legacy could live on – there is no one more worthy of honor amongst our legion. But there is no honor in hell – only to the Demon King does honor exist in such a desolate place… But we are no longer in hell! This is the world of man! We are subjects and lords, not fiends and archfiends. Therefore…" He raises his golden sword, placing it against Yatagarasu's right shoulder.

"There is no title greater than King, even amongst men. And there is only one king. Therefore, I henceforth grant you the title of _prince_ – now rise, as _Astaroth, Prince of Hell_!"

The crowd of demons erupts into more cheering.

"I accept this title with great honor, my liege." Yatagarasu says in far too plain a voice for the circumstances.

"Now… bring the human forward!"

Yatagarasu steps away as the demons lift me, carrying me towards their king, stopping me with my face mere inches away from his.

He examines me, his eyes narrowed but his smile unchanged – he clearly despises me to the very core. He _has _to know who I am and what I've done to his kind all my life.

"Ooh… Such pale skin. Are you perhaps a kabuki actor?"

The demons roar with laughter. It would seem that even demons knew of some of mankind's more embarrassing shortcomings.

"Kabuki is for the sort of man who lives on the edge of his _seat_, not for the man who lives on the brink of disaster…" I respond as plainly as possible.

"Ah, that's too bad… I do love a good show. So empty, so pointless, but _so _entertaining… And in _this _age, judging from our sacrifices alone… So many pitiful creatures with so many emotions to exploit, so many wretched women to take advantage of… so many organs to pluck… This world is truly golden…"

He turns towards me again, pointing the tip of his blade against my neck.

"I assure you, my friend… For you, the show is about to start. For you and your loved ones, it's golden show time…" He whispers into my ear with as much hate as he could muster.

"The Demon Slayer is ours – this man poses no threat. Burn him. And let him watch his village burn away along with him."

The demons then carry me off, and as Yatagarasu and Helmai vanish into the distance it all finally sinks in.

Yatagarasu had turned on me.

Out of nowhere, he'd betrayed me.

He'd let demons into our village.

He'd taken advantage of everyone.

He'd killed Akiha Ryuugu and had likely done the same to Makise Sonozaki to draw the crowd to where he needed them to be.

And he'd killed so many people –

And brought the Demon King Helmai and his legion of monsters into our village.

And I was none the wiser – none the wiser to any of it.

Our greatest threat – it was _him_, all along.

The villagers who had been fighting amongst themselves were now scattering to the wind – in every which way they ran, many too slow to escape the sudden burst of the Garms through the streets. They'd already been told to gather in the Sonozaki tunnels in the event that something like this ever occurred, but most of them wouldn't make it – the demons intelligently went for the Jaeda diviners and their children first likely on Yatagarasu's orders and had and even easier time going after the powerless villagers. Panic – panic overcame the entire village as blood started to spray every which way and fires started virtually everywhere the eye could see. I was carried through the road that ran through most of the village – and I could see it all. Everything I'd worked so hard to build, slowly burning away to the ashes at my feet. The Sonozakis tried to stand their ground, but ultimately no matter how many demons they claimed it would never be enough.

The road eventually leads out of the village – the trees were already starting to burn away. The Onigafuchi Swamp was about to be torn open at the very seams for all to see.

This had to stop. I had to do something. I couldn't let this continue.

I'd put too much on the line to let all of this burn away.

The demons carrying me out of the village were too dumb to see it coming – Kusanagi's sheath had been hidden under my robe the entire time and not a single one of them had been intelligent enough to check. Although what puzzled me was how Yatagarasu seemed to overlook it as well. The sheath alone was more than enough to kill demons of this caliber.

Regardless, I killed the group of them and once regaining my bearings had to assess the situation.

Onigafuchi is in flames. The villagers had gone into hiding in the Sonozaki's tunnels where the senseless accusing would continue until even more people ended up dead, but for the time being it was somewhat safer down there than it was up here.

I move through the streets of the village, the demons I slay turning into ash – it would seem that these beasts were different from the sort I was used to. It likely had to do with the presence of that one demon – the one that had named Yatagarasu a prince of hell or whatever it was he'd named him.

The streets seemed to become less chaotic the further in I went. The Sonozaki women were overpowering the demons to a certain extent – there was a chance we could successfully push them back, provided that I attacked their leader.

I continue towards the center of the village – if Yatagarasu was still there, then I would have to do it – I would have to kill him now. But there was no way he was going to challenge me head on – not after all of this preparation. I had to not only overcome the demon that had taken the form of the Frozen Flame, but there was still that Helmai to deal with.

I eventually find myself where I'd started – the circle of demons around the gathering plaza had dissipated, the ashes of many scattered about the dirt. Further ahead the demon Helmai stands, that same golden katana in one of his hands and what seemed to be some ball of concentrated darkness in the other –

Standing before him were the two forbidden best friends – Ouka and Mao, standing back to back, both battered and bruised, surrounded by struggling demons and their respective blades of choice in hand – for Mao, her father's katana, and for Ouka the Onigari no Ryuou. I don't see Hanyuu or Yatagarasu anywhere – I would bet my life that both of them were somewhere in the vicinity of the Furude Shrine.

"Ah, and it would appear that everyone has arrived on time!" Helmai laughs, drawing attention to me. Several of the demons surrounding the two leap in my direction – I cut them down with ease, but as I do –

"That's about enough, don't you think?" Yatagarasu is standing behind me, his hands on Kusanagi's sheath. He rips it out of my hands – his bare palm sears in pain from touching the sheath alone. He truly _was _a demon now. "This pain is nothing. The pain you're about to experience will be much greater."

"What are you planning on doing? Taking my life?"

"You will watch your daughter and her precious other half die right before your eyes. So you can see the fruits of what you've ignored and how your 'hard work' is going to end up killing someone precious to you."

"What're you saying-" He rams his fist into my side.

"Enough talk."

I turn towards the fight before me –

Mao and Ouka trade blows with Helmai – the crimson haired demon swings his blade with more precision than I knew his two opponents were capable of. But put together – he had to have been at some sort of disadvantage, even if that hadn't seemed to be the case at first.

Mao manages to force him into a defensive position while Ouka tries to move around him and strike at his side, but he consistently parries Mao's swings and blocks the Onigari no Ryuou with his open hand. He fires another burst of darkness in Mao's direction when Ouka almost manages to break through his defensive position and grabs the Onigari no Ryuou and pulls Ouka towards him, his blade poised to pierce straight through her stomach.

But Mao moves forward, her sword long forgotten several paces behind her – she grabs the blade with her bare hands and rams her shoulder into Helmai, giving Ouka the room to back away and lunge forward, the Onigari no Ryuou poised to pierce through him.

But he backs away, firing off another wave of darkness, this time in Ouka's direction. Ouka shows no signs of backing down – and at the last moment Mao shields her from the attack. Luckily only her sleeve had caught fire and she'd managed to withstand the bulk of the blow, and so she rips off the burning fabric while Ouka manages to run her blade through Helmai's stomach.

"Oooh…" He groans. "What dirty fighters you two are… This might prove to be a troublesome battle for me…" He doesn't seem at all fazed by the amount of blood that sprays from his stomach as Ouka rips the Onigari no Ryuou out of him, despite how the weapon was devised purely for dealing as much internal damage to its target as possible. He raises his blade again, seemingly completely undeterred.

"How much more can you take?" Ouka asks her partner.

"If I had to guess…" Mao breathes heavily, her movement only slightly sluggish, but sluggish none the less. "Twice as much as you can." She eventually replies.

"We'll see about that." With that snide remark, Ouka charges towards Helmai again, this time aiming for a much lower area – she was going to try to cripple him? But there was no way that she could manage that – the Onigari no Ryuou was a piercing weapon. The golden katana that Helmai could use extremely effectively for both offensive and defensive purposes was far more suited to this kind of combat – the way this fight seemed to go, Mao would be the one primarily on the offense.

But at the same time, Helmai was clearly toying with them. There was no way they'd be able to beat him, not like this –

Ouka once again attempts to land a blow to Helmai, but he never seem to miss a beat - it didn't matter what order they went in or even if they tried to fake him out – there was no hole apparent in his stance. It would seem as though he'd let them strike him earlier, probably to gauge their combat ability.

Both of them were outclassed in virtually every way imaginable. There was no sense to this fighting –

But at the same time, there was just something very wrong with this scenario. Helmai was fighting extraordinarily well, especially considering how Ouka was probably more effective in battle than I was. Mao had the warrior blood of the Sonozaki family in her veins, and both of them were leagues above their peers in terms of sheer fighting capacity. Mao and Ouka overcame just about everyone they ever sparred with aside from each other – and here was an opponent that made all of that combat experience null and moot.

I recall Ouka's past battles. I can tell purely from the way she's moving that she's fighting with everything she has – no matter how outrageous the opponent, she had the skill and knowledge to break through any offense. But here was Helmai, his style of combat rudimentary at best.

But the more I watched every block he made – it was as though his movement lacked flow entirely. It was as though he was simply assuming positions. There was no movement of muscles, no sign of delay – he would block Mao's strike with one position and would appear to parry off her strike. But it was more along the lines of blocking, before instantaneously shifting to block Ouka's strike. He was literally moving from one position to the next instantly.

It would seem that the two of them figure it out before too much time passes. Mao passes Helmai form the side, feigning a strike to his side which he moves to block – Ouka then attempts to strike him from the front – and sure enough he transitions between the two positions instantaneously. Mao now stands behind him and Ouka backs away, somewhat in front of him.

Helmai watches Ouka carefully – he knows that she can strike him without fail if lets her get close enough with the Onigari no Ryuou, but as long as he could block her there would be no way –

And then the two of them move. Mao drives towards him from behind, while Ouka drives towards him from the front.

Helmai is able to defend himself from the Onigari no Ryuou. But Mao's katana sinks into his back.

"Ah, using our brains now, are we?" Ouka is close enough to him that all he has to do is ram his head into hers to send her off balance. He pushes her away before tripping her with his katana, immediately descending on her with the blade –

Ouka's blood sprays. She lets out a coarse shout as the golden katana sinks into her right shoulder.

"Now that I've taken care of that pesky sword arm of yours…" He then pulls the blade upward, ripping it out of her shoulder –

But at that point Mao is already upon him. When Helmai had moved forward Mao managed to slide her katana out of his back. She swings upward, planning to completely take his head off. Helmai's katana is still fastened in Ouka's shoulder, and so he has no blade to defend himself –

He turns instantly and to protect his face he gives up his left hand. Mao's katana slices it clean off his wrist and for all of a moment he winces from the pain.

"So your head is your weakness…" Mao snarls. "That makes far too much sense for someone the likes of you."

"I'm only about as human as I look, dear."

He swings the katana in her direction – by the time Mao is forced into a defensive position Ouka is already back on her feet. At this point Helmai has a far more limited range of moves. There was no way he'd be getting by with the same moves from before – he could move as instantly as he wanted to, but that didn't mean he could be completely certain that his stance would hold.

Mao and Ouka once again attempt to synchronize their attacks, but Helmai was always on top of one of them, forcing them into a defensive position while his blazing speed overcame their already extremely fast reaction times. He had too much of an advantage, but it was clear that unlike earlier he was now seriously trying to stay alive.

The fighting almost seems to come to a standstill for a solitary second as all three combatants seem to stop moving –

Then a circle of dark fire rises from the ground, obscuring the three from view. The battle seems to rage on–

"Those dark flames… Those were once a power that belonged to my father." Yatagarasu suddenly speaks. "But in truth, those flames were born from demon hands – after all, demons are the one true source of chaos and discord in this world, right? Or perhaps _you humans _are to blame for this?"

"I don't know why you seem to hate humans so much, but –"

"But nothing. Your race is a vile one that deserves an end such as this one. In fact, I can think of no end more fitting than to be snuffed out by the very fires that you all started."

"You seem to think that this fight's already over."

"If Helmai-sama's flames disperse, then either he has been struck down or your two girls have been. When the flames fade, then we'll know for certain."

"So strange… You don't seem to be all that confident in your master."

"For starters, he isn't my _master_. Such an absolute term is so… _human._"

"You're dodging the question."

"Helmai-sama isn't exactly a good fighter. His demonic powers more than make up for it, though. Right now he's up against two of the best samurai in the entire world – realistically, his chances of total success aren't as high as I'd like for them to be."

"As _you _would like them to be? Are you planning something else on top of all of this?"

"The fewer strong opponents I have to fight after he eventually wears out, the better. Of course he already swore to leave you be – I'd rather avoid a father-daughter tag team deathmatch personally."

"So then you're saying he'll lose?"

"Right now out of all three of them Ouka is physically the weakest. Her wound is still completely unattended to, her weapon is incredibly inconvenient for a fight like this, and on top of that she's not even remotely familiar with the Onigari, especially when you compare her current performance to her mother's."

"So then-"

"In all likelihood, Helmai-sama will kill Ouka, but then be killed by Mao. Of course the way things are Mao will likely die from her wounds, but at any rate Helmai-sama will not survive this battle."

"You seem confident in that."

"It saves me the trouble of killing him myself later."

"What, is being a prince of hell not good enough for you, 'Astaroth'?"

"Let's be serious for a second. You don't think I let demons into this world so they could take over, did you?"

"What other purpose could you have had?"

"…It took twenty years to eventually put things into motion, but I'm finally going to carry out the Yatgarasu's last resort."

"Last resort?"

"The plan was, if the population of Onigafuchi ever turned on the ranks of the Yatagarasu if it ever became apparent that Amaterasu was dead, to attempt to revive our goddess by simultaneously sacrificing every man, woman and child in this village simultaneously with a pentagram that stretches from here to the mountains to the north to the riverbed to the south. My father sent me here before his passing to decide for myself if this village needed to be wiped away at any point. And so things have gone according to our designs – but the only difference is that I will not be reviving Amaterasu."

"So what's your new plan, then?"

"I'm going to turn myself into a god. I'm going to break out of the confines of cause and effect once and for all – and everyone in this village, man and demon alike, will become part of something greater."

"…But what, might I ask, does telling me all of this accomplish?"

"Right now the majority of the villagers are in hiding in the Sonozaki tunnels. The villagers will not give up this land any more than you're willing to. Even if you were to try to evacuate them all now it will all be pointless – we've already prepared the altar by the shrine… You're going to try to stop me, aren't you? But perhaps you know you can't – and so your only hope to save this land is to pray that your own daughter and her lover die at the hands of a demon."

"Don't put words in my mouth."

"I'm simply saying what you're thinking."

Before I could protest any further the curtain of fire surrounding the three collapses –

Ouka is badly wounded – she's bleeding profusely, but she is still alive. Mao seems functional, although her body seems weaker than it did before. Helmai seems to waver slightly, but shoves Mao out of the way, aiming what would seem to be an unavoidable strike in Ouka's direction –

Her movements were sluggish. Even a forward thrust from the golden katana would be too much for her to avoid.

But Ouka blocks with the Onigari no Ryuou – but her stance suddenly breaks, and her sword almost falls from her grasp.

And in that moment Helmai creates those black flames once more, and –

Ouka releases the Onigari no Ryuou – and she tries to back away. But he's simply too close.

But then Mao once again closes the distance. She throws herself in front of the strike.

Ouka loses her footing, but she recovers briefly enough to catch a glimpse of her opportunity –

She moved away with a flip – and at the end of that flip, she caught sight of a blood stained naginata on the ground just beneath her –

Mao takes the full force of the black flames – but then she moves closer as opposed to further away. Helmai sees it for all of a moment – he swings his blade, cleaving Mao's right arm in half. But it isn't enough to stop her. Grabbing Helmai and pulling him as close to her as possible, she puts all of her remaining strength into her one remaining arm as her blood sprays any which way.

"Don't pity me… I'm dead anyway…!" She manages to grunt as Helmai lets out a sharp cry.

Ouka stands once more, the naginata in hand –

There is hesitation, but she drives the naginata through Mao's chest – and through Helmai's heart.

There is silence for a moment.

But then Mao finally releases the demon and falls backward, sliding off of the naginata's pole.

Ouka collapses to her knees at Mao's side. She struggles to keep herself upright – but before she can so much as utter a single word she collapses, unconscious.

"Did I… beat you again? It's not even midnight yet… You're such a heavy sleeper… You're not cut out for leadership at all, are you?" Mao grunts.

Helmai remains standing, almost motionless.

But eventually he speaks.

"It's useless… It's all useless!" He says with a laugh. "I am… hate incarnate! Years from now, I shall live in a woman named Nomura, even beyond then, I shall live in a man named Ushiromiya, and far beyond then, I shall live in every man who walks this earth…! You cannot… Kill… that which you have…"

But he is unable to finish his sentence. He collapses. He is without a doubt dead – his body and his golden sword fade into the ashes.

When I turn to face Yatagarasu I find that he has vanished –

I look around frantically for a sign of where he'd gone. I notice that the Onigari no Ryuou had vanished. Had Yatagarasu taken it? I couldn't question that right now – I'd know soon enough anyway, and the more time I spent thinking things over the less time I'd have to act.

I run to Ouka's side – she's alive, although badly wounded.

"Don't worry… Riku Furude… She will be fine."

"…I don't have the right to question your actions. But I owe you my life for saving my daughter's."

"Enough… If there is anyone who should be in debt, it should be you."

"…?"

"I know of my father's fate… Your wife appeared to me mere moments before those demons filled our village. She told me everything."

"Hayuu did…?"

"She said she would be waiting at the Furude shrine… She has to protect her flame… That's why I took it upon myself to protect her… Her family couldn't be there for her so…"

"…"

"Tell me… how long would you have let her suffer the way she was? Surely, being her father… Surely you noticed how despite our separation she still was hurting… Surely you saw that she hated her life of combat – that she only fought for this village because she was unable to love anyone any other way. That's why I abandoned my family at the estate… I came here to save her, because I knew she'd never forgive herself if she couldn't protect the people she was allowed to love and that she'd throw herself into death's jaws if need be…"

"Allowed to… love?"

"…It's laughable… It seems that I alone could not imagine living in a world without her… You are her father, and yet my love for her is stronger than yours…" She manages to shift her head, staring longingly at Ouka's somewhat peacefully sleeping face. "Promise me. In repentance for killing my father. Promise me you'll let her love again. Promise me that you'll let her live whatever life she wants to live."

"I will… I promise."

"My sister shall continue our bloodline… I am the only one who knows of this secret. So you… You have to ensure that our families… can once again live side by side instead of as distant neighbors… With that, the debt will be paid." She pauses briefly. "…I always hated the cicadas. Even now I can hear them – Ouka loved them, though… Maybe because she could understand their song…"

She closes her eyes. "Ah… I hear it too now. I can hear their song, and I… I understand, Ouka. I can know your pain… And share it with you forever…"

And so Mao spoke her last as the lights leave her eyes.

I hear a sharp howl that pierced through the roaring wind. I turn sharply towards the side, lifting Mao's katana that had fallen at her side and holding it at the ready – the sound came from the hillside. From the Furude shrine.

I swallow hard. I force back my need to stay by Ouka's side until he woke up and stand. I can't stay around for much longer – Hanyuu was still nowhere in sight. I had to find her. If I even had the slightest chance of saving her, I had to take it. I might not have had Kusanagi, but there had to have been something I could do in this situation. Ouka should be safe – it was only a matter of time before the Sonozakis reached this place and with the Demon King dead, the demons would soon be in a state of disarray.

I took off down the pathway and into the forest. I was almost certain that Hanyuu had been this way.

I eventually come to my destination – a clearing in the woods. A clearing that most certainly hadn't been there before. The trees that had once stood here were completely uprooted and cast to the side.

In the center were two demons fighting to the death, the one, carrying a bloodied katana, was without a doubt Hanyuu. But the other was a demon that I most certainly had never seen before.

The two of them battle in such a way and at such a speed that I can barely even keep up with their movements. The fight happens several feet in the air – the two were likely using the trees to gain their height, although there was never any visible sigh of it. Being married to a demon, one would think this sort of situation would be a bit less overwhelming for me. But I was only human, after all. I had no choice here but to stand and watch.

I hear steel clash with flesh, but not a single drop of blood falls onto the ground below them. But as the fight races onward the two combatants become much easier to see.

Eventually Hanyuu falls to the ground below. I rush to her side almost instantly. Her face is covered with gashes of all sizes and her white robe is stained red.

"Are you alright?" I ask her almost immediately.

"…Ouka?" She asks.

"She's fine. Right now I'm more worried about you."

But then she attempts to sit up, only to find a sharp pain strain her left side. She drops the Onigari no Ryuou, losing the remainder of her strength.

"Don't even try it. I'll take things from here."

"Riku – don't. You can't do anything about him…" She gasps from the pain as she tugs lightly on my sleeve.

"What makes you say that?"

"No one can…He's not something any human can kill."

"But you didn't seem to fare much better."

"…I couldn't do it…I can't explain right now, but you have to understand."

In that moment I hear the roar once again, and the beast that had been fighting Hanyuu until mere moments ago dropped from the trees and stood before me.

The beast's head was nothing more than a skull – the remnants of a deer's head, antlers and all. Its eyes, despite the blood red glow they gave off, were apparently completely hollow. But despite that I couldn't see all the way through them because of the black flames that seemed to have been condensed into a sphere inside the skull. Its left arm was that of a normal human, but I couldn't see the skin due to the black leather that was wrapped around it. From the neck to the toe, the beast was covered in a tattered black robe that was bound to it with bloodied chains that seemed to weigh it down considerably. The right arm, however, was free of the binds as it was more of an animal's arm, with red fur and incredibly sharp looking claws that seemed to be almost twice the size of the other arm.

This was a monster – quite a twisted looking one at that.

"Don't… You can't."

"Sorry, Hanyuu… I'm not going to let this monster get away with what it's done."

Hanyuu offered no further protest. Clearly she knew that there was no swaying me.

In that moment I lunged towards it, the feral beast's arm wildly flailing its way toward me. I raised Kusanagi, preparing for potentially the worst case scenario…

Each swing of its massive arm isn't telegraphed in the slightest, but I avoid them all with complete ease. Each strike carries with it a force that not even Kusanagi could have any chance of parrying, but each strike is as final and inevitable as the last. It was only a matter of time before this flimsy katana would break under the pressure.

Eventually our fight becomes heated enough that I start to reach my limit. The demon is strong – too strong, in fact. The fight continues, the inevitability of it all taking its toll on every one of my movements. Kusanagi itself could not hope to even scratch the beast, and no amount of willpower would ever change that fact.

I find myself at a loss – no matter how swift and true my strikes were it all amounted to nothing. There was no way I could possibly defeat this demon in battle. I knew that much for certain.

But why? And what other way could there possibly be to resolve this?

Was it impossible?

Was it the work of the flame – was it the desire of the Frozen Flame that I die here?

But before I realize it Hanyuu is standing again, her frame moving sluggishly as she approaches the beast.

"Wait, what are you –" I try to call out to her but I suddenly find my throat blocked off by my own blood. I spit out an unhealthy amount as I collapse completely and roll onto my side.

Hanyuu approaches the beast – there is no killing intent. There is no aggression.

She reaches out and touches the monster. It clearly reacts adversely to her touch, but it only lasts for a moment. The beast seems to calm down.

"Please… This is enough." She whispers gently to it. "I know this isn't what you wanted. But this is enough. This is _more _than enough.

The demon seems to slacken under her touch – her voice washes over it almost visibly as its demonic snarls turn into what seemed to be whimpers.

"…Saya, my lovely daughter… This isn't what I wanted for you… I'm sorry."

I was unsure if I'd heard her correctly. But –

But there was no doubt in my mind.

This beast – this beast was her child…?

But who, dare I ask, was the father?

"When we live in a world like this one…" She suddenly speaks in a louder voice while gently stroking the demon's skull – she was talking to me. "There are thousands upon thousands of children that grow up without understanding what it means to love and be loved in return. The purpose of this exercise of ours was to create a different world where such wasn't the case, no matter how small it was. Even if it only consisted of five people and no more, it would have been enough. But I suppose even that was too much."

She sighs. "For as long as I've been on this planet, I've always been puzzled by one thing. Why do humans fear fate so much? Why did the Frozen Flame ever need to be hidden from the eyes of man in the first place? After the years I've spent in this village, I finally understand."

"…?"

"It is not simply a matter of man fearing what it does not understand. Fear of one's destiny or the fear of one's death are not truly irrational fears. Man does not understand himself. And so man fears threats to 'himself,' an aspect of himself that he has no control over, because he fears that without 'himself', 'he' will become 'someone else' or 'something different' – or, as most see it, 'something wrong' or 'something he shouldn't be'. Man fears for 'himself' more than anything else. Man exists predisposed to 'himself' in all aspects of life."

The Onigari no Ryuou appears in one of her open hands.

"And to satisfy the preservation of man's 'self,' man would have me gut my own child here and now. But my child has done nothing wrong. She has threatened man, but man has threatened her threefold. All on their own, man has determined 'right' and 'wrong' wholly based on their preservation of 'self'. You want to know why our village fell apart all on its own? Because they're not afraid of demons – they are afraid of each other. If one cannot fully trust themselves, how can they ever trust another, they ask themselves? Demon and man may as well be one and the same."

She pauses briefly. "…But how do people come to trust each other? When they come to care for the 'self' of someone else – can you tell me what this idea is called?"

"…Love?" I respond, somewhat unsure of where this was all going.

"And in the end, humans have taken love and turned it into a tool to preserve their idea of self. When one mourns the loss of a loved one it is because _they _will never see them again. Not because their beloved died in agony or suffered tremendously. They weep for _their _loss of_ their_ loved one. Whoever they were didn't matter, only that _they _loved them and _they _lost them… And in the end, you can't truly call such a thing love… I have wept for every death of every man, woman, and child in this village – in this world we created together. But even then this world is barren of love."

She turns towards me – in two steps the Onigari no Ryuou is only a few short inches away from my face.

"Hanyuu…?!"

Her eyes – her eyes glow their demonic red glow. That red gaze of death that only reminded me that she was a demon –

"That's why when Yatagarasu vowed to burn this village to the ground I drew the pentagrams and bridged the gap between Yomi and this land and let the Demon King Helmai through. That's why I allowed myself to carry Yatagarasu's daughter."

I find myself at a loss for words.

But being what I am, I open my mouth again, this time to protest. To tell her that she's wrong.

And then –

And then I suddenly remember.

The day we met.

Her eyes – her eyes were so beautiful. And these were the same eyes, unchanged despite the years having gone by. And those eyes were now threatening me.

_And that's the only reason why I hate them._

_Threat. Me._

…

"Deny it." She speaks coldly. "If you had your precious Demon Slayer without you would strike me, your beloved wife who has lived at your side for twenty years, right now without a second thought."

"I deny it…" But my response is weak willed. My voice is far from firm and final.

"Deny it. You hate me, your beloved wife who has slept at your side for twenty years, because I am threatening to kill you."

"I deny it…"

"Deny it. For all intents and purposes, you despise me, your beloved wife who has loved you more than you could possibly have ever loved her back for twenty years, and everything that I am."

"I deny it…!"

"And the only way that you can live with yourself for all the wrongs that you know you've committed is to deny everything that denies you… At one point I believed that you were different. But you are simply human, and nothing more."

And with that, the Onigari no Ryuou pierces through my skull –

And I find myself descending, descending into the darkness of a hell that I felt was reserved for me and me alone.

* * *

_Akarana, The End of Time_

And soon enough I find myself in a strange place – a small, isolated section of land that unnaturally seems to fade out of existence. A road, built of stone, seemingly ripped out of reality and confined to this place, a place with no sky but a dark purple haze that seemed to go on forever. A lit object standing on the top of a pole was rooted into the stone at the center of the stretch of road, serving as the only source of light in this strange place – and as always, sitting across from me on a massive iron chair, floating in the air and fastened to the stone road by numerous rusted iron chains was –

"Welcome home!"

He claps his hands in a mocking manner before he fixes his hat. His yellow eyes now seemed ablaze with their glow and his skin seemed even more pale than usual, but aside from that, he was the same as ever. And that, perhaps, was what made all of this so wrong.

Yatagarasu – he's sitting there. This fate – it's his doing. He condemned me to this fate – but despite everything that's happened, from the mutiny to the execution, I still can't understand _why_.

"I wonder… How many times does this make? Seventy thousand? Perhaps? Am I at least close?"

"Why did you blame yourself?"

"You know, it's not that I blame _myself._ I just blame _you_, really. Denying everything that I am, defying the very force that made you who you are and made every Furude before you and every Furude after what _they _were – you know, the sort of unjustifiable crap that got us here in the first place."

"Yata-"

"Must I remind you _every time_? Yatagarasu is dead. Amaterasu is dead. And all you've done these several centuries is prove that there's no reason for such entities to exist in the first place. Man can't handle the truth, but man will destroy the truth on their own, no matter what is done to prevent it. Man will continue to obscure the truth with its own lies until the nature of the world is forgotten. And then – and only then – will there truly be no purpose to living."

"We both know that you're making that up."

"Look at your people – two generations have gone by, and already they fail to remember who gave them the land they so proudly trample upon. They fail to respect those that saved their lives and gave them the decades of nourishment and peace that they relish in so greedily. Thousands of years from now the work of the Yatagarasu will continue, but there will be no grand mission. No greater goal. There will be nothing but pain and death. People will live solely to protect themselves and their sense of place and belonging will be lost. People will live, day by day, with nothing more than their physical concept of self. Mind and body will become so distant that there will be little sense in calling them human. And even then, even when death comes to rule the world and all of its facets, the work of my family will never be done. And for all eternity, until the end of time, they will rot away, along with your precious concept of self. But here you are, fighting for a future for your worthless race."

"No matter what you say will happen, as long as I live I'll protect everyone I–"

"You couldn't even protect the two people closest to you." He spits in my direction, his gaze cold and intense. "You can't protect anyone. Not your daughter, not your wife, not Chinami, not anyone. And the only reason why is because of your human nature. Your entire race is the same way – you show compassion, only to demand compassion in return. You give, only to expect more in exchange. You expect and assume, and whenever things don't match up with your baseless conclusions and assumptions you simply don't know how to react. When someone breaks the mold and is simply different, you turn away from them – _that _is why this will continue for all eternity."

"So you're saying that there's no way? No way to satisfy something so simple?"

"Tell me – who connected to your small iota of the space that makes up this whole world was ever truly content? At any point in time?"

"Easy enough – Hanyuu was, as was Ouka, and –"

"You still don't get it do you? What makes you think that either of them were ever content with the way things were?"

"We lived pleasantly for twenty years. That was all we could've asked for."

"Ah, but you see, _you _are the only one who seems to think so…"

"…?" This conversation – this was starting to break form. If there was anything I knew about Yatagarasu, it was without a doubt his demeanor just before he was about to lose his composure. But why? What

"So All this time, no matter how many times you've seen the same faces, you've still never noticed. You've never noticed how Hanyuu always dreams of more than her life in Onigafuchi. How Ouka always desired nothing more than to leave the village and her responsibilities behind so she could live for herself for once in her life. How Chinami loved you all the years of her life despite what you'd done to her, having to live with the agony of being separated eternally from the one person she truly trusted. You know _nothing _of your loved ones. You don't even know anything of yourself."

His words hit hard – he could've definitely been lying. But given the circumstances, it didn't seem as though he was.

Yatagarasu sighs. "No matter how many times we come to this – you still don't even come close to understanding yourself."

It then hit me.

Yatagarasu wasn't detached from our world. He'd been a part of it for so long. He'd expressed great human capacity multiple times over the years that I've known him for. But he was the one who did all of this in the first place, wasn't he? Wasn't it Yatagarasu who manipulated Hanyuu to get a hold of the Frozen Flame?

Or maybe it wasn't.

Maybe it all _was _my fault. If what he had said was true, then –

Then it all made sense. Then everything that had seemed so very wrong all this time was more apparent than I'd ever believed it to be.

Since I was a child, I always knew that I was weak. But when I'd become the master of Kusanagi, I had power –

But it was never power that was my own.

I borrowed that power, and so I was limited to what I could accomplish with that power.

I resolved conflict and saved lives. I did great things for my people and gave them all peace of mind that would always last for twenty years.

But then it would always end like this. The demon would ravage the village and raze all in its path. Carnage would ensue and my life would be lost in the process of trying to quell the conflict. This chaos was inevitable, as was my ultimate end that followed it.

But why? Didn't I save people? Didn't I protect them?

But what was I protecting them from?

I wasn't protecting them from demons, at any rate.

I was protecting them from the inevitable consequence to all of my actions. And in the end I'd failed even that.

I ended conflict with violence. I'd stored away the only true opposition to my ideals in a cave to suffer eternally. Death led to more death, but it was all fine, because I'd been protecting the people around me.

And in the end one conflict led to another. One cycle of pain led to another, and for every one fight I ended two more would start in its place.

My solution was death. And so death was what I ultimately earned in return.

There was no true solution…?

Why hadn't I ever considered this before now?

Why had I'd done whatever it was I thought was right? Why did I never try to understand that what I was doing was no less vile than what I was preventing?

But what other way was there?

There was no other way.

Or maybe there was.

Maybe I just was too ignorant to ever realize it.

That path that I've never taken before –

Maybe _that _is the one true solution.

…

I've seen my life flash before my eyes thousands of times.

There must be an answer, buried under my years of living. Years that I didn't deserve –

And then –

Then I knew.

No, I hadn't protected anyone. I'd only shielded eyes from the things I'd done and on top of that I'd shut my own and covered my ears to all of the signs.

It seemed so obvious now.

I didn't protect anyone.

I only prolonged something so inevitable that there was no sense in having tried to protect anyone to begin with.

Hanyuu and Ouka were both always hurting. Ouka was trapped like a bird in a cage. Hanyuu was always bound to the duty that I made her disregard. I never truly protected either of them –

But how could I have done it? The villagers needed Hanyuu to keep them united. I needed Ouka to become my successor to the Furude Shrine. They had to sacrifice for the greater good.

What could have been done?

The answer –

The answer was far simpler than I thought was possible.

I realize what was missing.

What was missing from that village. What was missing from the lives of all those living in it. What was missing from my immediate family's life and what was ultimately missing from Yatagarasu's and my own life as well.

And in the end, that one component, that one thing that was needed to resolve everything was –

I assume the look on my face was priceless, as Yatagarasu laughs at me. "Ah, _there's _the look! I'm honestly shocked you managed to work it out so quickly this time."

"What are you saying?"

"You don't remember yet, do you? In truth, I almost thought you'd just go quietly this time, but it would seem that the cards are in my favor, as they always are…"

And in that moment, as though only because he allowed me to, with a tremendous wave of pain surging through my skull –

_Once again, like every time before, I knew…_

_My death mere moments ago._

_Every memory of every death before this one, and in all likelihood every one of my deaths to come, rushes back to me._

_How many times has it been?_

_How many times have I told this tragic story?_

_How many times have I recounted the tale that ends with my own death? _

_How many times has my own wife ended my life so brutally?_

_How many times have I seen these events unfold?_

_And how many times have I made the same mistake, over and over again?_

_This is my life – my life, looping for all eternity, as I remain fated to suffer the same way with little variation. There isn't any variation at all to this simple fate, however –_

"This is…" I can't finish my sentence – the intensity of it all was too much.

I've done this…

I've done this so many times before…

I've arrived at the truth so many times before…

And in the end –

I make the same mistakes.

I throw away the same people.

I discard the same things.

Over and over again.

"For so many years I've watched you fail and fail, time and time again. You simply can't realize where your folly lies. No matter how different things turn out you make the same ignorant mistakes, and you'll keep making them forever. And the rest of your precious people will fail in identical regards from now until the end of time."

"But…This isn't how this should…!" Before I can finish my sentence, a sharp pain pierces through my lower abdomen. I collapse to the floor and cough up blood. I finally see Kusanagi at my feet, cast to the side like a broken tool and visibly tarnished like a blade that's been worn down countless times. My skin is suddenly pale and spotted as though I were thirty years older. My eyes grow weary and my muscles weak.

I feel my entire body start to erode, as though I'm aging at an inhumanly fast pace –

"This is how it's all _fated _to end. No matter what truth you've arrived at it doesn't matter – this is how your life ends, and how it will continue to end forever. You've gone far beyond your limit… Now let us return – we've many years of our lives ahead of us." He laughs as my legs give in completely and I fall over completely.

But this isn't right…!

I understand, Mao…

I understand why you'd given up all hope and turned to demons for your compassion!

Because your family…

And every one you ever truly cared for…!

They all had that component – they all lived by it, and…!

And Hanyuu…!

I understand now…!

Why you weren't content with the life you were living. Why the more human we acted the more distant you became…!

This can't be how this all ends – I can't be forced to sit through this spectacle for all eternity.

I won't allow it.

I might not have any power to change anything myself.

But…!

As long as he thinks this way, as long as he stands by this fate so firmly, even though he's suffering too –

I can stand. I can stand and fight, even if my legs stop moving. Even if every bone in my body breaks.

I grab the hilt of Kusanagi, using the blade to hoist myself up. I can still stand, although my legs will likely give way with the slightest amount of stress. That doesn't mean I can back down now, however.

"Oh…? Is your optimism so blind that you're willing to deny your chances being virtually nil and _resist_ me? The one true king of this realm and the only chance of a just future this world has?"

"if I'm the one responsible for all of this, then I'm not going to give in until I can win over someone's future… You may be right. It might be impossible for a normal person to live to the fullest of their extent because they're bound to their idea of self. But without that idea of self, there's nothing to being human to begin with…!" I manage to ready Kusanagi, pointing it towards Yatagarasu. His expression betrays his voice – he's clearly not amused, in fact, he seems rather pensive, despite everything.

"Your idea of self is _that _important to you?"

"My idea of self was based on the life I lived for twenty years and the life I could have lived twenty years before it. In order to hold on to that idea of self, I lived my life the one way I knew how to. Even though all of this is the result of my very being, and there's no way out of it, no matter how many times I try, there's always one thing that humans are capable of, no matter when or where. It's the one thing that can truly protect another. The only thing that can bring people together and the only way to overcome the chaos we all create. Something that _neither of us_ ever truly understood."

"And what, pray tell, might that be?"

"Self sacrifice. Laying down oneself for someone else. The sort of love that matters more than any other. All my life I've only lost – I've never given up. People have put their lives on the line for both of us, but I never gave anything in return."

I take a step forward, my strength still wavering by the second, but strong enough to last through my speech. "And right now, I'm going to lay myself on the line for my family, my village, all the people I've discarded and everyone that you seem to hate so much… I'm going to deny you, and everything you are, for everyone who's ever lived!"

"That ideology of yours…!" He leaps from the chair and lands a few feet away from me, drawing his katana. "What a hopeful resolution you've come to… I'd rather die a thousand deaths than accept such a vapid idea!"

With that I charge forward towards him. I have no chance of outright killing him. Kusanagi had long since lost its splendor and there was nothing more to it than a hollow shell of a weapon that had once been. All I had, the only power that I had that was truly mine was this will to die in exchange for all of this – all I could do was convey that strength.

We lock blades for what would be the final time – his stance is far stronger than my own, but as long as I could just stand against him like this, that would be enough. I manage to overpower him using the bulk of what power I'd built up and manage to force him to back away. Kusanagi leading me as I move, I pursue him, trying to close the distance so he has no room to recover. I swing again, this time catching his loss in balance as he tries to back away but ends up losing his footing. I manage to keep him struggling at this pace for several seconds more as I wait for my opening. His eyes are inhumanly quick and he manages to avoid the attacks, but only narrowly. His pace is sluggish – but of course it would be this way. I knew how he fought – thousands of times I'd seen him struggle in battle. I already knew him all too well. And no inner strength from any evil deity was going to change that.

Eventually he slips around me and attempts to attack me from the side – but I block the attack without too much difficult and back away, turning to face him and simultaneously swinging Kusanagi. We stand at sword's length away from each other, waiting for the other to make a move.

But I already see it.

Whenever Yatagarasu wins a fight like this, it's usually because his opponent doesn't know his stance – his opponents never realize that despite the way he was standing he was always unfocused until he breaths in at a certain point and relaxes his shoulders while tightening his grip on his sword. But I knew the timing for this –

The moment his chest rises I make my move. He's somewhat taken off guard but he manages to back away his stance once again broken – all I had to do was keep this up for as long as I could.

I ram into him with Kusanagi's hilt, my right shoulder cracking from the pressure. The moment he notices my sudden loss of focus he makes his move – his next several swings are all imprecise and inaccurate, but he doesn't need them to be. He just needs to hit me with one of them.

I back away twice and move to the side to dodge his next swing –

And in that moment I could almost feel the heat from his boiling blood.

I knew what was coming. Provided I was at full strength I might be able to do something about it, but now it was too late.

He's only holding his blade with one hand – and the Flames of Horus engulf his other hand and, as hard as he physically could, he punches me in the face, the scalding hot flames severely burning my face. I fall to the ground, releasing Kusanagi, my entire body going into a seized state as my brain desperately tries to fight the damage being done to it. The burning stops, but not before the side of my face is scarred beyond recognition.

"A pity… You almost had me, at least for a moment." Yatagarasu sighs overdramatically as he walks towards me.

But he forgets to pay attention to my legs and as he approaches I trip him, causing him to fall forward towards me – I punch him squarely in the stomach and grab his katana with my free hand as he drops it.

And so I stab him where, provided that he were human, his right lung would have been. He howls in pain as I quickly push him off to the side as I roll away, my face going through another fit of pain as it is pressed against the ground. I find the strength to stand as he recovers and rushes towards me, with only those flaming fists for weapons. He strikes me twice, both blows being more than enough to finish me off.

But I can't let myself die.

I can't let this idea of self perish like another passing fancy of that god forsaken flame.

I stand firmly against his first strike against the side of my head. The second is aimed towards my gut – I manage to firmly hold my stance despite the pain, swinging the katana despite everything – and the blade runs through his stomach and exits through the lower part of his back. He arcs backward in pain and falls backward, desperately trying to pull the katana out of him.

I finally collapse, the pain simply too much to bear. I feel the bones in my left leg cave in on themselves and I fall over, all of the pain simply too much for my human shell to deal with.

Was this it?

Yatagarasu stands, the katana on the floor beside him and the Flames of Horus spewing from his newly opened wound. He seems to stagger around for a bit as the flames continue to pour out of him – but eventually the flames dissipate and he sighs.

He walks over to me, not making a sound. He lifts me off the ground by my throat and slams his open palm into my chest.

My vision swims before it seems to short out entirely – and all I can see is a bright, brilliant azure flame. I feel the bones in my body reconstruct and my muscles reform to a certain extent.

And the moment I snap back to reality, Yatagarasu releases me and takes several steps back.

"My mother wasn't a Yatagarasu. She wasn't even a crow." He suddenly begins speaking. "She was a bird of Egyptian myth – Jehuti, a goddess of knowledge, an aspect of the Frozen Flame itself, created when Hainiryun arrived on this planet. My father's real name is Horus. He brought Amaterasu's light to the people of that land, but they never truly understood what he stood for, and so they named _him _the god of the sun. Jehuti saw my father's so called godhood for what it truly was and came to understand what we Yatagarasu truly stand for. She didn't love my father – she loved the idea that he comprised." He pulls off his coat, tossing it to the side. Underneath he didn't wear any kind of a shirt, but wore what seemed to be some unique style of thin black garment over his legs.

"Jehuti gave humans everything. She taught them how to record their history, to preserve their pitiful selves that she knew had no true purpose for far longer than their short lives would allow them to. She gave them her knowledge. She gave my father her body. She gave me her life. She gave literally everything she had for the sake of a pitiful race she had no reason to protect – and yet, only so many years later, she's been forgotten. She doesn't matter because no one remembers her. When I came to this village all those years ago, I did so purely so I could try to understand – to understand why my mother gave everything so freely for such a pitiful race."

"Your mother cared for her people. She wanted to protect them, and so –"

"And so she died, only to be abandoned – when I met you, I became aware of my 'self' and wished I never had. 'Self' is weakness – weakness that has to be tossed away. My mother died to preserve that 'self' and so –"

"Your mother died in childbirth, correct?"

"…That is the case, yes."

"Then she died for you… Giving ourselves for the people we love is first and foremost our duty as human beings. Your mother was no different."

"So you say…"

With that, he steps forward, his fists no longer fueled by the Flames of Horus, but poised to fight regardless. It would seem that we were going to settle this with brute strength. I now had the power to move, so now this final fight could end fairly. Perhaps this was what Yatagarasu wanted the entire time.

He swings from the left and I dodge, following up with a quick uppercut, which misses as well. I step closer, moving into send a punch straight to his gut – I manage to land a solid blow but his left fist crashes into the burned side of my face. I wince from the pain before backing up and swiftly moving in to land another solid blow to the side of his face. I back away before he can counter, taking the opportunity to trip him up again – it works, but when I move in to slam him into the ground he flips away, regaining his balance and charging forward straight into me. I manage to send him off course with a punch to the side of his head, followed with a well placed kick to his stomach – he staggers backward, only for a moment, but long enough for me to follow up with a critical blow to the face, his nose cracking under the force of my attack.

He backs away before stepping to the side and running towards me – I prepare to block another frontal blow but he suddenly ducks and rams his head into my stomach before lifting me into the air and slamming me into the ground. He then leaps and drives his elbow into my back on his descent, his hat falling to the side as he backs away, allowing me to stand. He clearly broke something – I have issues standing up, but for the moment I could still fight.

I face him – he's visibly exhausted now, with the various bruises all piling on top of the gash wound. Apparently I had hit him hard enough that his head had split open somewhere above his hairline, but at the same time I was likely bleeding in far worse places.

We were mostly even, the Demon Prince and I. But only because he's no demon and he's no prince –

I move closer, stopping short to observe his reaction – he goes for a low blow but I back away. He seems to let his guard down, but I know better than to go after Yatagarasu when he _looks _like he has his guard down. He picks his hat off the floor and returns it to the top of his head, sighing as he fixes it.

He grins. "I never picked you to be good at this sort of thing."

"Back when I first started training with it, Kusanagi was very unreliable. Did you really think I'd be the head of the village if there was a chance that if my weapon didn't agree with me I'd be completely useless in a fight?"

Our fight resumes. Yatagarasu moves in for another series of strikes that I've already seen him do twice – and so I was completely caught off guard when he avoided my counter strike, pulled me closer to him, and decked me in the face with an extremely sturdy left hook, my vision swimming for a few brief moments – enough moments for him to strike me twice more before bashing my head into the ground several times. He eventually drops me and backs away – but I know better than to just stay lying down. I try to roll – it didn't matter which direction, just as long as it was away from him. I manage to avoid his bone breaking stomp, but I have trouble standing – my vision is too hazy and I feel as though I'm about to lose consciousness.

I manage to regain my footing and back away, having a decent idea of where he's standing despite my failing vision. Eventually my eyes focus – and his fist once again collides with his face – but I manage to get a solid grip on his arm, pulling him down with me, and ramming my knee into his crotch before bashing my head against his. I manage to push him off to the side as I use one of my arms to balance myself again, rising to my feet and backing away, leaving Yatagarasu in a completely vulnerable state.

He squirms around on the ground – and so I decide to mimic his unorthodox move from earlier and run straight towards him, throwing all of my body weight into my elbow as I slam my elbow into his stomach. He gags and coughs blood as I rise to my feet. He attempts to sit up, but I swing my arm downward, hitting his head hard enough that the back of his head smashes the ground beneath him.

Yatagarasu rolls away as I attempt to go in for another strike. In an instant he's back on his feet – his eyes are about as hazy as mine were only a short while ago, but he's still moving about as though it didn't matter. We trade several blows before slamming fists together – and in that moment he grabs a hold of my arm in an attempt to mimic the last move I performed, but I manage to break away – only to be met with a swift kick to my side, knocking me off balance long enough for him to steal a jab to my arm. He pushes me to the side and moves past me as I try to counter, only to come around from behind, wrapping his arms around me and slamming me into the ground headfirst.

I feel it – my left leg seizes up as whatever Yatagarasu had slammed into my chest earlier started to wear off. I brace myself for the next blow, but Yatagarasu doesn't attack – he coughs more blood as his otherwise mortal wound starts to take its toll on him.

I stand again – but my leg makes it almost impossible to keep myself steady. My vision is suddenly filled with the blue glow of that flame – my right hand suddenly starts stinging. I look down – my hand and the entire of my forearm have become what appears to be a sword, with a blade as black as the night and a hilt welded into my arm as white as the moon. Yatagarasu doesn't seem to notice, so it must have been a hallucination.

But the blade starts spinning in place, and –

And I saw this chance.

My body starts to exert some blue steam, similar in color to that blue flame. The blade spins faster and faster –

Yatagarasu wipes the blood out of his eyes before crouching for a moment, closing his eyes and breathing in and out. He stands his gaze as defiant as it always has been, for all the years I've known him.

We make our final stands, both of us clearly at our limit, preparing for the worst.

He slams his fist into my face. My leg almost gives way, but I manage to recover. He hits me again – again my leg refuses to give way. And again – and again.

I feel faint. I know that if I lose consciousness now I'll never wake up. I have to move – I move my sword arm into position –

And he hits me again. And again –

Every bone in my body feels sluggish. My muscles are numb – if I don't act now, I'll…

I'll die…

And I refuse to die… Anymore…!

He swings again, this punch weak and poorly timed.

I duck, avoiding the blow, and –

I drive the sword hand through Yatagarasu's heart. He freezes.

I pull my hand out of his chest, falling backward in the process.

There is silence for a long while. But I've survived.

I've killed Yatagarasu.

"I swear to you now…" He finally speaks. "All you've done is revel in the chaos you and your wretched kind have created…! There is no escaping the inevitability of your death, and with this, truly you have forsaken those that gave you the land beneath your feet!" He coughs up blood. "This isn't over… This will never be over. Soon, everywhere in the world, the faces of demon and man alike shall become one and the same! And for as long as there is meaning to the word 'self' my descendants will plague your family and your wretched ideology until the end of time…! When the cicadas cry, death and pestilence shall fall upon you and all those you love…! There is no escaping it…!"

"And one by one they'll end up just like you… Because my will is a will of fire. And that fire will burn bright forever, long after I'm dead."

With that he speaks no more –

It's over. He's dead.

And all of this only amounted to more of the same violence. This didn't resolve anything. I haven't saved my village or my family or anyone but myself –

I suddenly find myself regaining consciousness on the ground outside the shrine – the demon is nowhere to be seen now, only Hanyuu stands before me, the Frozen Flame only a short distance away, hovering in the air. My head is also completely intact – something I certainly wasn't expecting.

"What happened?" I question immediately.

"I stopped her." She speaks curtly. Her voice is weak – she was likely at her limit as much as I was at mine.

"Yatagarasu is dead."

"He's been dead for a long time now. What you fought just now was nothing more than a man I slept with."

And once again we're brought to this – this moment where I'm unable to so much as look in her direction. "…I'm not going to say that-"

"What I've done here is unforgivable… I loved this place, this small world we built, at one time at least. So it's only fair that I give myself up to the laws of this place as well."

"What're you saying?"

"I've ensured that my one daughter will never be the same again and I've just killed the other. There's no place for someone as cruel as I am in this world, nor in any other for that matter." She moves the Frozen Flame, lightly pushing it in my direction. The small orb floats towards me – I find myself able to touch it directly for the first time. "If I have to be honest, I never slept with Yatagarasu… The Frozen Flame simply made that possibility a reality and took on her form… She is as much my flesh and blood as Ouka. And so now this belongs to you now. There's no one on the face of this earth more qualified to bear the flame… You _are _my husband, so I'm entrusting both of my daughters to you. Now, there's much to be done but far too little time to do it. I know the circumstances seem even bleaker than they really are, but there's one and only one way for Onigafuchi to exist after tonight."

"And what way is that?" I'm only ignorant to her line of thought for a second more – the village was in ruins, the already fragile lives of the villagers shaken beyond repair. So how could something so impossible be done? How could you restore something that simply cannot be restored?

I'd just established the means a few minutes ago – means that I had taken thousands of years to become aware of. And now it was only a matter of time before everything could be saved.

"The villagers know only that a demon ravaged their village from the inside. You saw them all – they began to turn on each other, because –"

"Because there was no one for them to unite against. They feared each other because the only thing in this world that's truly tangible is ourselves."

"…Do you understand now? What we have to do?"

"I'd never let you do it." I respond almost immediately.

"It seems that no matter how many times we've come to this over the years… You're just…" She hesitates to respond, now facing completely away from me as she comes to terms with what little emotion she had left for me and this life of violence she'd lived in this village.

But suddenly, she giggles. "You're just so stupid."

I find myself laughing as well, more in self admonishment than anything else. This outcome was inevitable. But it wasn't because I'd made the same mistakes over and over again – it was because I'd finally done something right, for the first time in a thousand years.

"…Looking back on everything now…" She once again hesitates to get her words across. "…There was only one thing I ever truly hated about this – about this life that we've been living for so long."

"What's that?"

"...Even though we built it ourselves, love never had any place in this world. The only things in the hearts of the villagers were hate and fear. Love became an act of desperation so that people could bring themselves to keep living in fear. I can't live in any world where that's all love amounts to…"

"I'm sorry." I can't bring myself to say anything else.

"I know I have no right whatsoever to ask this of you, but…" She turns to face me again, her face stricken with tears. "…Please, please save Ouka. Help her understand what love is supposed to be like. Even if it's only her and those who come after her, I'm sure that this world will still have a chance."

It's funny – two people have made me promise the same thing.

There was no way, after all of the pain I'd caused, that I could turn my back on either of them.

"I will…"

From there we don't even embrace – there's no sense in pretending that there was love or even remote affection between us. At one point I'd believed there had been – but this village and the world I'd built inside it involved anything but. I can't bring myself to speak to her past that point – I turn away and head down the path, primarily to ensure that Ouka had survived despite her injuries.

As I move further and further away, Hanyuu suddenly speaks again.

"With this, you of all people are the only one who truly knows… Goodbye, idiot… And… I'm sorry."

And from here I'm sure you already know the story.

After all, the Furude clan became a clan of self sacrifice that day.

And so to quell the villagers, to save Onigafuchi truly for the first time, I had to give up the life I had worked my whole life to maintain. The people no longer had demons to hate – they were the demons themselves.

Hanyuu was offered to the heavens, the secret of her demonic child following her to the grave. I gave her up – I gave up my family for the sake of everyone around me.

I had nothing else to give, other than a life better suited to serving others.

And so to honor her sacrifice, I sent the ceremonial sash that was the symbol of our marriage down the river and towards the mountains. Our Watanagashi ceremony, in its most primitive form.

And the Frozen Flame, the source of all of this trouble –

We stored it away in the only truly safe place in our village – the Saiguden. None should ever disturb such a sacred place – not as long as the Furude clan lived on.

We of the house of Furude live lives of self sacrifice. That is our true calling – to do what very few are willing to do. To rise above and beyond the whims of those around us and do what is truly just – to bring about true justice.

It wasn't long after everything had finally settled that I found myself in the company of Chinami, perhaps for the first time in several decades. It was the evening of Hanyuu's cremation – burying Hanyuu would have simply been a denial of everything she truly was. After all, no one would ever want to be buried in a place they truly despised. But in the end she knew no other home and so this was our final solution. Ouka was kneeling near the pyre, offering a prayer to Amaterasu for her safe guidance into whatever afterlife she believed she'd be heading to.

Chinami stood at my side, silent until she was certain that we were out of earshot of everyone else.

"I'm pregnant." She states simply. "It's his child. He said a daughter."

"And you'd believe him?"

"I'd believe him more than I'd believe you."

"He tried to kill everyone, you know. Including you."

She is silent for several moments before speaking again. "It's even worse than unforgivable. How after all of this, you don't understand a thing about him… You were his only friend, you know. He told you more about his life story than he told me at first… You _were _the first person he ever came to understand."

"I'm far from concerned with what Yatagarasu thought. In the end he gave up –"

"You're only saying that because he slept with your wife… You don't even know why he did the things he did, and you're willing to leave it at that because he's dead… Ah, but he did vow to continue all of this forever, didn't he? And the only way to ensure that such a fate won't befall your precious family would be to kill me right now, wouldn't it?"

"…"

"Well? Will you kill me? Will you draw your sword and strike me down? If you don't now, you'll never have another chance."

"…Violence brought us to this. Violence won't solve anything more."

"Then why do you still refuse to know the truth?"

"Then what? What was his reason for all of this?" I speak in resignation.

"You were his best and only friend… And even now that you've killed him you don't even have the slightest clue as to who he really was." She seems to hold back a sigh. "He told you everything – he told you Amaterasu was dead. He told you that the truth of how this world was established was too much for man to bear. The reason why he came back wasn't to prove himself to you, or to try to mend things with me or even apologize for the things that he wasn't even really responsible for. He didn't even come back to carry out his race's entropy plan. He came back to protect us _from _the will of his father and the others like him who would see us dead. Because he, like his mother, was devoted to mankind… Don't you think it was strange? That despite how much he hated us all he never left our sides even once? Or did you not even notice?"

"…" She was right in that regard – I _had_ noticed, but I had ever acted upon it.

Things seemed to make sense.

How he never bothered to secure Kusanagi's sheath even though he knew that it alone was powerful. How he told me exactly when and where the center of that pentagram that would erase our village was. How he even warned me of his attack days in advance.

Yatagarasu was never all that confident as a child, but he wasn't a child anymore. If he had actually hated us so much, he would've said something –

I think of Hanyuu.

She kept going despite the life she hated because she loved Ouka. She never spoke a word, but all along she had been secretly crying for help – a cry that Yatagarasu answered. If I actually took the time and thought about it at all it made sense –

"You didn't. Because you were wrapped up in the life you'd won by killing things. You'd been upsetting the order that Yatagarasu existed to preserve. But even then he always fought by your side, looked after your hell-child and protected your family when you were out causing more chaos. So why did he persist if he hated us so much that he'd kill us in a heartbeat?"

"I…I don't know."

"He told you he hated the idea of self. He wanted to wipe all of that away. But even then he seemed to support anything but what he died trying to do… Don't you get it yet?"

"He… He came to know that 'self'. He said he hated what he found."

"But even then…" Her face falls. "He loved us. You and me – he loved us both more than you've ever loved anyone in your life. He loved us because we showed him compassion that not even his own father gave him. He loved us and wanted for us both to be happy. He loved us enough to defy his goddess's wishes outright."

"…"

"At one point he was willing to die for you. But just like everyone else you forgot everything he did. You became too wrapped up in your own idea of self and the life you'd artificially built for yourself and you denied him what his self amounted to."

"But what about you?"

"I have no self to hold on to. You were the only person who ever made me anything – I was meaningless to everyone else, but you… I could give him nothing – I was barely left with an identity after the years of isolation in that god forsaken basement. But even then he came to my side, and even then he asked for help…"

"…And?"

"And I told him. I told him I could never leave this place or try to move on from everything that happened… I told him I still loved you, even after everything that you put me through…" Her voice seems to crack – for the first time in decades, Chinami's emotions seem to resurface, even if only for a few instants. "…And I begged him to kill you. I begged him to burn this village to the ground. I begged him to kill everyone. And he tried… But he couldn't kill you."

The memory of that day, so many years ago, finally resurfaces. The fear in her eyes – the fear I'd only gave a permanent home in my quest to eradicate it completely. Chinami's love – the love that Hanyuu despised with all her heart, and the only love that we were capable of.

"…So the only reason why it all came crashing down was-"

"It was because I begged him to and because he loved us. That's all. He didn't have any grand scheme. Even though he knew what I asked for would amount to nothing he still did it... Because he loved us and we never really loved him back. Because you were chasing after your own shadow and I was chasing after you –"

"But there was never anything between us –"

"If you can lie so blatantly I never should've met you in the first place… The way things are now I'd rather be dead than be standing here next to you. That's how much it hurt. But the way it is now you're only going to die on your own terms, so this was all unavoidable from the start."

She turns away. "I loved you, whether you want to accept it or not. You were the only person in the world that I mattered to, and even then when I spent seven years in that cellar I never saw any sign of you… Because I couldn't meet your standards of a normal person."

"That isn't-"

"If you deny everything even now, then you've learned nothing. He died for nothing, and on top of that _she _died for nothing. Even their daughter died for nothing."

I can no longer fight her – she isn't wrong. I have no counteraction. All I can do is remain silent – because that is all I know how to do.

She starts to walk off. "We both denied him. We managed to commit a sin worse than murder. It's only right that we suffer forever because of it."

"All we can do is give up. Abandon the things that we've taken advantage of and use it to bring peace to those around us. We're only human."

"It's all in vain. Such a solution is only permanent if your will is just as permanent. But demon and man are going to be one and the same before too long… It's our fate. And you are the one who is trusted to guard that fate forever."

"I'll protect the flame with my life, as will all the Furude shrine keepers after me. If there's anything I can have faith in, it's in my own family."

"We'll see how misplaced your faith truly is…" She pauses briefly. "I'm going to marry into Ryuugu-san's family. I'm going to be changing far more than just my name in the process of doing so. But no matter how much things change or how much time passes, I swear to you right now…" She pauses once more. "…From now until the end of time, my family and yours will despise each other. We will fight and kill each other for the sake of this bond, made broken today. No matter when or where, Furude and Ryuugu will despise each other to the very core for all eternity. As long as our families live on, this feud of blood will last forever."

"And no matter what you do…" I almost hesitate to continue. "Your family will never rise above mine."

"But at the same time, your family will be doomed to this destiny of yours forever. And should his fire ever die out, my descendants will carry the torch in his place."

"You can try."

Those were the last words I ever spoke to Chinami. I never saw her again – her marriage into the Ryuugu family happened all off my radar. I found myself an ailing old man soon enough anyhow – and in the end I could never be sure. I could never be sure that my will would outlast me. I could only pray – only pray that such would be the case. That one day, when Chinami's daughter and every one of her daughters to come after her became the will to condemn my own, that there would be fire left in the Furude clan.

I never really understood until now – man creates conflict and chaos, but ultimately there was always something for man to fall back upon. And in the end those that came before me and ultimately all of those who will come after me won't either.

In the end Yatagarasu was right.

Our concept of self makes us ignorant and weak. Chaos will always ensue, no matter what form it takes because we are what we are. Justice is a hollow life that has no meaning and before too long even justice itself will be rooted in the chaos it exists to erase.

That is why –

That is why I am Riku Furude.

And that is why I –

That is why we are of the name Furude.

So that there will one day be meaning to words like peace and justice.

So that one day the world Hanyuu and Yatagarasu both loved dearly could perhaps see the light of day once more.

This is my story.

And ultimately, it doesn't matter who hears it.

But whoever you are –

You must carry this will of fire to the end of your days.

Because you may be our last chance –

* * *

Oh, but this is not where this tale ends.

This is simply the tragedy of the Furude clan and the birth of the farce you all know so very well.

No, this is only the beginning.

This is simply one view. One perspective – one person, hiding the truth from both himself and from you at the same time.

This is simply the birth of the will of man that has driven the world to the brink of destruction, time and time again, into the darkness that the world now resides in.

Riku Furude gave birth to nigh but the cycle of endless death that all of his descendants suffered from.

Where there is light there is darkness.

But who truly represents the light, and who represents the darkness?

I assure you, it is far more complicated than the roles simply being reversed.

Riku Furude's view is flawed.

But my view is truly absolute.

Rika Furude.

I now speak directly to you.

You seek to challenge me directly.

But I am fate. I am fate incarnate. I am that which gave birth to your world and that which will end it as I see fit.

If you intend to bring an end to me and all that I am –

You must understand that we are of the same flesh and blood.

We are siblings far removed. I am as much a part of your blood as you are a part of mine.

Without me, there will never be you.

You cannot deny my existence without denying your own.

And still you seek to defy me, and everything that I am.

I accept your pointless challenge.

I am Saya Furude, Nebiros, and the Frozen Flame.

I am everything that you are, and everything that you are not.

I await you here, at the top of the mountain, at the Crucible, where your path to the end of time will open.

But you are not yet ready to even venture into this world so far removed from your own.

So let us return to your time.

To the farce unending – to Hinamizawa, to where this inevitability of ours will repeat itself forever and ever.

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

So here we have to stop, because as I mentioned before, I can't continue with the fourth arc until I know if the mystery is evidently solvable as it is. At this point there needs to be completely establihsable grounds for someone to be the killer – now as it stands, the actual killer can be ascertained from all the previous sections put together. Obviously, I'm the author, so I already know all the hints and such.

But the main issue with _End Dreamer's _'solution' (if you could even call it that) was that the clues were so ambiguous that it was pretty much impossible for anyone to draw on them. So I need to know if any character (the actual killer or not) can be selected with some substantial backing to them by my readers. This way I'll know if the level of detail is satisfactory or not.

If so, the fourth arc will not be blatantly important to the mystery. If not, the fourth arc will be loaded with details pertaining to this.

So yeah, until this is determined, we're on hold. Kinda sucks considering how I just picked this back up, but we'll just have to see how fast I get replies :P

So until then, I'll likely have the overall skeleton for the fourth arc completed in a fairly short amount of time. But at that point the ball will be in your court.

(Oh, and in the event that any of you found that bit strange, the garments Yatagarasu was wearing were just normal dress pants. Riku thought they looked strange because they wouldn't be created for another thousand years or so.)

(Also, if you didn't read through the fist fight with "Light and Darkness" from the Fate/Stay Night OST playing in the background I feel sorry for you.)


	17. Empty Skies Chapter, Episode 0

_**Author's Note**_

Nope, it's not that time yet, but _man_ are we close. We're drawing dangerously close to the formal start of the fourth and final question arc of the story. Having reviewed everything so far, I'm just about ready to release the finished product – but there was one aspect of the story that I never really saw it fit to focus on for this arc. That aspect is the overall plotline – from the Riku Furude portion of the story, all the way to Serika's awakening, a whole lot of crazy crap goes on. And I know it can get really confusing, but practically none of it is talked about at all in this final question arc, even though you'd definitely still have some continuity questions about it that I should probably address. So I've decided to release an _Episode Zero _of this arc beforehand to accurately illustrate just about everything that's gone on in this crazy alternate universe continuity that I came up with. And there's no better way to do that than with a detailed timeline. At least I thought so, at least.

As this story has recently become a much more formal sequel to _End Dreamer _I've decided to include details on that as well – the plot is summarized about as well as I could summarize it in the detailed timeline below – and on top of that, I actually answer some plot related questions and reveal a small number of precious details in the process, mainly explaining the distinction between Vol.1 and Vol.2 of _Cicadas _as a whole.

Anything that's boldfaced is an important detail. Nothing much more to it than that.

So scrutinize this down to the last detail or whatever. The fourth arc will commence in relatively due time.

* * *

_**Empty Skies Chapter, Episode 0**_

##

_**I The Old World**_

Amaterasu's story of creation occurs almost word for word, humanity begins its slow ascent up the ladder and eventually becomes and advanced race of intelligent creatures

#

**Hainiryun** arrives on Earth with **the Frozen Flame** in tow, makes contact with **Jehuti, an Egyptian entity**, before going on to establish the Jaeda clan.

#

**The Demon King Helmai**, freed from the bowels of hell with the imbalance of light and darkness shifting in his favor, claims the swampland of **Onigafuchi** as the center of his domain.

#

Onigafuchi is attacked by Amaterasu's Yatagarasu legion in an attempt to offset Helmai's contribution to the imbalance. The resulting war nearly sinks all of Japan, leaving behind little more than a collection of islands.

#

**Horus, the Yatagarasu of the Furthest Past** arrives in Egypt to strengthen Amaterasu's will after suffering the losses of the war with Helmai. He eventually falls in love with Jehuti, and the product of the following relationship is the **Yatagarasu of the Distant Past**.

#

**Riku Furude** meets Yatagarasu when both are very young. The two become close friends very quickly, and along with **Chinami Okazaki**, Yatagarasu gradually becomes more and more human.

#

Chinami is attacked by a rogue demon outside of the "**Shack Removed from Time,"** an event that scars all three of the close friends.

#

Riku encounters the Jaeda Clan and kills the rebellious Mao Sonozaki in the process. Yatagarasu returns and Hanyuu enters the picture as well, both playing massive roles in the remainder of Riku's life. The Frozen Flame is henceforth protected by the Furude clan.

#

Many years later, Yatagarasu, out of unrequited love for Chinami, strikes a deal with Helmai, the Demon King and becomes** Astaroth, the Demon Prince **, cursing Riku Furude to relive his entire life on loop in the **Sea of Fragments **and in the process seduces Hanyuu, creating the possibility for the Frozen Flame to take its demonic form and for the hordes of Helmai's demons to invade the village.

#

Riku eventually overcomes Yatagarasu's eternal torture and slays him in battle. **The cursed fate of the Furude Clan begins.**

#

The Frozen Flame is store in the Furude's sacred Saiguden to protect it and by proxy Hanyuu's dormant demon daughter from further exploitation.

#

Chinami Okazaki marries and becomes **Chinami Ryuugu**, vowing to bring woe unto Riku's descendents long after her death.

#

* * *

_**II When the Cicadas Cry (Higurashi Canon)**_

Two thousand years later, Onigafuchi has become **Hinamizawa**, as per the dying wishes of **Ouka Furude**, Riku's daughter. The village has become a far more standard place for people to live, and on the rare occasion attracts visitors.

#

As per Riku's original establishment when he became the head of Onigafuchi, the three great powers in Hinamizawa are the **Sonozaki House**, the **Furude House**, and the **Kimiyoshi House. **In the years after the near catastrophic demon invasion, the Sonozaki family, for its efforts in ensuring that the village remained well protected, became the family with the largest amount of power.

#

The demonic bloodline of the villagers remained largely unaltered. As a result, the residents of Hinamizawa developed a strong psychological deficiency identical to the mental instability that the Jaeda clan suffered from over years and years of hardship prior to being assimilated into Onigafuchi. The deficiency ultimately results in uncontrollable actions, wild hallucinatory episodes and extreme cases of paranoia.

#

In 1981 the **Tokyo Company **takes interest in this psychological deficiency once scientist **Miyo Takano **brings it to their attention. Illegal experiments on residents of Hinamizawa and those exposed to them begin, the deficiency itself eventually being coined the **Hinamizawa Syndrome**.

#

**Rika Furude, **the most recent descendant of the Furude family, is affected by Yatagarasu's curse when the **Great Hinamizawa Disaster **occurs, wiping out the entire village and all those that lived in it.

#

With the assistance of a semi-amnesiac Hanyuu (who could not recall the existence of her own daughter and much of anything about Riku as a direct result of her execution and the damaging of her horn), Rika eventually breaks through the cycle once more by bringing Takano to justice.

#

In the process Rika suffers death at the hands of her opponent countless times. The collectiveness of each death one on top of the other time after time caused Rika to develop post traumatic stress disorder that nearly brought her to suicide. In order to cope with the damage before her ultimate escape from her cycle she had, though copious amounts of alcohol, created the personality that became **Frederica Bernkastel**, the Witch of Miracles.

#

* * *

_**III Fragment of the End Dreamer **_

Parallel to Rika's plight, a fragment that was never supposed to have ever existed takes shape.

#

**The entirety of the upcoming fourth tale, save for the very first scene, takes place. Nebiros **acquires her human form.

#

The Disaster occurs as planned, but through a twisted miracle Keiichi Maebara, Shion Sonozaki and Satoshi Houjou all survive.

#

Shion's mentally unstable state causes her to assume the personality of her dead sister and she vows death on all those responsible for the carnage that befell her village.

#

Keiichi Maebara loses his memory and falls into a coma that lasts twelve years. Due to the impossible nature of his survival on inhumanly low amounts of blood he lives in his own cat-box, half alive and half dead, expressing the ability to 'sense' death around him.

#

Satoshi Houjou loses all memory and upon his reawakening he assumes the identity of 'Riku Furude,' determined to avenge his 'sister' Rika's death.

#

In 1995 'Riku Furude' becomes **'Rai Sumidera,'** killing the real Rai Sumidera in the process, planning to return to the locked down Hinamizawa with several unsuspecting cultist fanatics to uncover the truth of the disaster.

#

Of those that came with Satoshi to the village, two are romantically tied siblings seeking an alleged Furude artifact from the Saiguden that would solve their socially oriented problems for them. **The artifact in question was the Frozen Flame.** Satoshi discovers them and kills them both before proceeding to kill the rest of the fanatics to ensure that there were no witnesses.

#

Miyumi Satonaka, one of the fanatics that Satoshi falls in love with prior to the investigation, is revealed to be the personality crisis afflicted Shion who plans to start what essentially amounts to a revival of the Onigafuchi Guardians sect to essentially bring down society in its entirety through spreading the Hinamizawa Syndrome. She and Satoshi fight presumably to the death, but both resurface relatively unharmed.

#

The fanatics all ultimately perish and once Hinamizawa is designated as the area where they went missing previously dead tension begins to resurface as the Hinamizawa Syndrome sudden breaks out nationally. The solution to the outbreak is deemed to be the complete destruction of what was left of Hinamizawa.

#

Relatives of the fanatics attending St. Lucia's Boarding School, one of which being Yomi Sumidera, sneak off campus and drive to the village to uncover the truth. In the process, **Yoko Narukami**, a relatively unaffected party who joins out of concern for her friends, learns of her past as Irie Kyosuke's biological daughter.

#

Nebiros inexplicably awakens in the Shack Removed From Time in her more recently acquired human form with virtually no memory of her past. In the process of attempting to escape the village she encounters Yoko in the forest. The two become inseparable and Nebiros becomes largely human due to her interactions with her. She recalls her human name, Saya, that her mother had given her.

#

Keiichi, now the **End Dreamer**, blackmails the head of the Tokyo Company into granting him total control over the Yamainu and, with the assistance of Doctor **Saturn Anne** and **Natsumi Kimiyoshi**, orchestrates a full scale attack on the recently revived Hinamizawa that ultimately results in the burning of the village. Shion is killed in the process and the only survivors of the entire incident are a fully recovered Satoshi, Keiichi, and a select few others.

#

The End Dreamer begins his crusade to bring an end to the violence he was ultimately the cause for but dies realizing that such a task is ultimately impossible.

#

Nebiros awakens in the Sea of Fragments and is sealed in an exact replica of this fragment by Bernkastel, fated to repeat her tragedy over and over again for eternity.

#

Hanyuu, mere hours away from regaining the bulk of her power, is challenged directly by Astaroth, who despite having been defeated by Riku eons ago had lived on in the darkness in human hearts and had replicated himself within Keiichi in several fragments before eventually converging in this fragment and breaking free of his binds upon the End Dreamer's death. Wanting to formally test her desire to return to being who she once was, Astaroth fights Hanyuu to a draw as she proves herself to him. Their currently standing alliance begins.

#

Several thousand years later, **the very first scene of the upcoming tale occurs. **Nebiros is free to wreak havoc on the Sea of Fragments and begins to infect them all with her existence.

#

Bernkastel inexplicably vanishes from all known space and does not resurface to seal the wild Nebiros.

#

* * *

_**IV The Fragment of Man's Last Hope**_

Astaroth 'fails to recapture' Nebiros and begins the process of creating the perfect replica of Bernkastel for unknown designs. At some unknown point before this, Astaroth seals the End Dreamer in the **Velvet Death**.

#

In 1981 the Bloody Christmas massacre is carried out single handedly by Mion Sonozaki under the guise of Jack the Ripper under orders from an unknown party within the Sonozaki family. In the aftermath, Satoko Houjou begins her personal investigation of the incident and encounters **Shin, **a homeless man not much older than her brother who can be considered her first romantic interest.

#

Several customers of the **Blue Mermaid**, a Sonozaki-run facility, were targeted by Jack the Ripper presumably for their theft of a rather hefty sum of money that had belonged to the family. In the process of killing them all Mion manages to throw the neighboring city Okinomiya into chaos before Satoko temporarily resolves the issue. As a result, however, the city is turned rather wholly against the Sonozaki family and due to Satoko's strong contributions Shin becomes Saturn Anne, a member of Okinomiya's city government with absurd amounts of power.

#

In 1983 The Great Hinamizawa Disaster occurs, due largely in part to Okinomiya's sudden rioting in the village after the sudden rekindling of the murders started by Mion. Who is responsible remains unknown.

#

Satoko Houjou manages to escape from the village alive and despite losing her right arm manages to go on to marry Juusa Amasuka, having several children and living somewhat normally.

#

In 2036 The very first Rika that Bernkastel herself had separated from was eventually discovered and turned into a cybernetically enhanced alternative to a witch, ultimately taking on the name 'Serika.'

#

And **he of the furthest future begins his ceaseless wail. **

##


	18. Empty Skies Chapter, Episode 1

_**Author's Note**_

Alright, first and foremost I apologize for releasing that timeline and saying that I still wasn't ready to start up the fourth arc. Because that was nothing but a complete and blatant lie. The fourth arc starts right now – with a somewhat unreliable... uh, I mean, un_expected_ narrator on top of that. Now that we're completely in End Dreamer territory in every way, I'll have you know that rereading that story (or reading it for the first time, as unlikely as that seems) will not be required in the slightest. Why? Because the fourth arc, as you may have guessed based on where I placed it in the timeline, is the so called 'truth' related to that story that I never released.

Only now we've got our Vol.2 brand of mind blowing going on here, so it won't be quite the same as it would have been had my requirements been met for the original story. Oh well, it's better than nothing. Also gives me the opportunity to actually link these two stories together. From that timeline, the most relevant things you need to know about that are End Dreamer related are:

Yoko Narukami being Irie Kyosuke's biological daughter  
Nebiros inexplicably waking up in that shack  
Keiichi being the End Dreamer and going on to command the Yamainu

That's the most important content for this arc. I realize I may have… slightly retconned a detail or two from the original _End Dreamer_, but… well, you'll see why I'm not particularly concerned about that in a bit.

That's about all I have to say for now. So enjoy.

* * *

_**Empty Skies Chapter, Episode 1**_

_Those Days Have Long Since Passed (June 28__th__, 1995)  
__Nebiros, the Frozen Flame_

I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I can't introduce myself to you, no matter how much I'd like to. If I could I would in a heartbeat. But I can't- simply because there's no one I know how to introduce. There's no one here- just me, a person who has no clue who they are and can't understand what they are and why they are what they are. All I can do is tell you my story. That's all I can do for you. I'm so sorry.

I wake in a cold sweat, unlike anything I'd ever felt before. It was simply the most frightening feeling in the world. Had I perhaps been dreaming? Was I trapped in a nightmare for that time? Yes, it was certainly a dream, I know it. But what was it about? I would never know, neither on that morning or any other, why I had woken in a cold sweat.

All I knew was that I knew nothing. I had no idea where I was- or _who_ I was, for that matter. All I knew was that I was trapped in some terrible dream until just this moment- for how long I couldn't say. In the end whether or not it was a nightmare or something more was completely irrelevant.

But the place that I was faced with when I woke- my surrounding area- I would have taken the nightmare over what I saw any day.

A dark room, filled with nothing but skeletal remains. Some were still adorned with small amounts of rotting flesh and most of them were still swarming with flies. I could assume that the decay was rather recent, although the fact that I am here and am still alive could be the reason why the flies have swarmed this place.

But as I mull over this seemingly insignificant detail it all suddenly hits me- what I was actually seeing before my eyes. I suppose it was just the effects of my prolonged state of sleep. I scream as loud as I can, simply from finally registering the reality of the situation.

I then began to see things with more detail, and each one causes me to shiver all the more rapidly.

The remains- they were all corpses. They were corpses that littered nearly the entire floor. The corpses themselves are mostly skeletal at this point but several of them are still rotting away, ripped opened and mauled as if they had been chewed apart by a wolf. I try to ignore the more miniscule skeletal remains, telling myself that they were just from small people, perhaps midgets. I try to focus on something else in the room- anything else.

I can now make out dried blood on the walls and ceiling, while the floor was adorned with what could have been the remnants of someone's intestines. Whoever had done this- why would they have done such a thing? Who on earth would do this to another human being- let alone so many?

I suddenly break down. Some of the blood and the intestines seem fresh. The people who had done this were probably close by. What if they returned to kill me? What if I ended up the same as they had? I frantically scan the room for some way to escape. I see something that appears to be an impression in the wall, different from all the other surfaces.

Of course- I know what that is, it's a door. I can open it and escape! My paranoia slips away for even just a moment as I realize I can break free through the door. I stumble to my feet, only to find that the bottom of my left foot was cut. I almost stumble right back over and into some of the blood on the floor, but I manage to fix my balance in time. I focus my eyesight in the direction of the door as the scent of blood fills my nose and my vision begins to swim.

…Ah, but then I remember.

I break the vicious cycle of this life – a life that no longer holds any meaning for me.

Then I remember everything.

That's right.

I've seen this a million times before.

This is my prison.

The Mason's Cage. The one fixture that has stood longer than I have. The out-of-place, seemingly worthless shack that exists as both a portal to the very depths of Hell and a means to escape it. It was built by forces unknown and was meant to seal away the chaos that would drive the world into madness.

They knew – whoever built this cage, they knew. They knew of my birth. They knew of my arrival on this planet. They knew of the form I'd taken and the origin of my power. They tried as hard as they could. But it was of no meaning anymore.

I've finally become self aware again…

Aurora, my shriveling copy.

Yatagarasu and his temptation.

My birth, death, and sealing.

My promise to abide by your rules.

…I remember everything, Bernkastel.

I know why you looked at me with such contempt that day. Even though I'd never even seen you before. Why you despised me as your beloved witch gave me a second chance.

I remember everything.

You gave up the future, Bernkastel.

You gave up the future to lock me away. To seal the very thing you despise more than anything else.

You subdued me, while I had no idea I could be subdued.

You stole my memory at the price of your freedom.

You are bound to the curse of the witch – to die at the first sign of boredom.

I accepted the fate you dealt me.

But I am fate…

And so your fate was far more absolute.

This cage means nothing to me.

This cage is beyond my power.

But not beyond the rules of this world.

And I _am _the rules of this world, given shape.

At that very moment an asteroid hurtles towards the cage at blinding speeds from several millions of miles away and, in a matter of seconds, it destroys the very foundation of the cage, leaving me to behold the hollow forest I'd come to know so very well.

Now, I am at last free.

I find myself running through the forest I knew all too well, not to escape my captors as was the usual routine, but instead to defy the very notion that I was being chased. You cannot hunt fate – but fate will hunt you, from the moment you are born until the last second before your death.

This pattern is the same. It has always been the same.

This pattern is fated to happen. This pattern is my will.

And so I find myself taking that same path through the forest. The path that leads me to my capture. The

…And…

And so this pattern is fated to happen.

And so I am fated to reunite with her…

And so I am fated to adore her as my older sister.

And so I am fated to lose her.

To give myself up in her place.

And so I am fated to succumb to my humanity, which has plagued me since that day, so many years ago.

And so I am to understand that humanity is a gift.

A gift that gives, but takes more than is truly just.

And so..

And so…

And so I am fate.

And I despise myself.

To the very core.

Two thousand years it has been.

But I have returned.

And by my own will –

I will reap the very fabric of this world.

There will be no humanity.

There will be nothing.

Only me.

Only fate.

* * *

_19 Days Remain (June 11__th__, 1983)  
__Nebiros, the Frozen Flame_

What you are about to experience, or rather what I am about to dictate to you in a text based form, is not the story of how the universe came to loathe me – it is the story of how I came to loathe the universe that I created with my own two hands. In truth, the ultimate blame falls on the shoulders of the Yatagarasu and my original handler Hainiryun, who henceforth will be referred to as my father and mother respectively, but ultimately there is a method to what you have deemed to be my madness.

Over the course of this tale I will deny you and everything that you believe me to be. And when our tale comes to a close you will be given one final chance – to either submit to my will or continue your path to inevitable ruin.

And so we begin in the village where this all began – in Hinamizawa.

It had been several thousand cycles ago, in a fragment far removed from yours, yet not so far removed at the same time – It had been during that June in 1983 when I found myself once more enraptured by the village that had been the cause of so much strife over the centuries once more. Long before I was sealed in that shack by Bernkastel, and long before I'd even met _her_, even – all there had been at the time was this village and the inevitability that was my return. There was nothing more, but nothing less either. Surely my words confuse you – I have no real intention of rectifying myself, as I'd be devaluing my own personal brand of symbolism if I did so. But if you've come this far then you should already understand this – and you should be able to see the truth in these words for all that it is.

I warn you now. If you lack the capacity to unravel my truth, then turn back. Turn back and never challenge my existence ever again. For if you continue down this path of madness I assure you that if you are not ready you will never _be_ ready, and your fate will for all intents and purposes be sealed. This is an undeniable truth – no matter how hard you try to deny it, it will never yield, and no cat-box could ever save you from it.

All things begin in darkness, as did my rather unceremonious return to the realm of the conscious. It wasn't all that accurate to say that I had perished as I had only been sealed away in my more condensed form for at least a thousand years, perhaps even more. But nevertheless, when the light finally broke through and my eyes once again had purpose, I found myself floating in that condensed shape, hovering at least two or three feet off the floor of what I had to assume was the Furude Shrine's Saiguden – after all, it was where that bastard slayer had locked me away after murdering my father. I doubted that anyone in their right mind would challenge a man's command if he was single handedly responsible for slaying a Demon King –

But something was certainly strange here. The building seemed sunlight deprived and generally older in general – it had been in much better shape the last time I'd been awake like this. Just how much time had passed…?

I slowly rotate, surveying the room – cobwebs and dust had built up everywhere. Whoever was in charge of this shrine deserved nothing short of the death penalty for leaving my at one point permanent place of residence in such disarray. I might have been entirely demon, but that didn't mean I wouldn't invest in a little spring cleaning once and awhile.

Eventually I finally take the time to notice the light in front of me – the door to the Saiguden was wide open – and on the floor several feet below me was quite possibly the most frightened young girl I'd ever seen in my life, having evidently fallen onto her back and in the process of slowly crawling away from me. In her eyes I found a sort of fear I hadn't seen in eons – the familiarity was there, at least, although I doubted that humans would have changed their ways that much over the last few centuries. Looking her over, I found her dressed in a rather odd assortment of clothes – they were for the most part some shade of light blue and white and were stylized entirely differently from the sort of clothing my mother wore – they honestly appeared to be more like my father's clothes in terms of out-of-place-ness. Her bright orange hair was just as much of an impossibility by my standards, but considering the traditional Sonozaki green I really had no grounds for asserting that.

She continues to stare at me with that same level of fear – clearly we were far past the age of the supernatural if a young child could look upon a floating block of ice with such confusion. I could only assume that humans had become even _more _afraid over the years – there was no grounds for the opposite to occur, after all. Not with how my father's demon invasion concluded.

I find myself amused by her clearly baffled state – she was clearly not of the Furude clan, yet she had broken the rules set in stone by the bastard slayer what appeared to be centuries earlier. And yet here she was, scared out of her mind, staring down something she could never truly understand. Was she brave for coming here? Or perhaps just stupid? I was willing to accept the latter – ignorance was a defining characteristic of man, after all.

…

…Do you see what I'm trying to do here? Can you see the oddity in my narrative? The words flow from me as they would flow from the thoughts of man – but I am no man. I am demon, not man. But even then I may speak the words of a demon as well. Ultimately when you break down both demon and man into the most raw of components they are more similar than one could ever imagine. First and foremost, before being either demon or man, I am fate – I am destiny incarnate. So in all practical terms I am neither. Yet I am both. Therefore here I am all three at once – I am man, speaking with curiosity and expressing contemplation, demon, speaking with ignorant brutality, and fate, speaking with absolute objectivity.

But in all honesty – you've already read them yourself. Are my words all that different from what you're accustomed to? Does my being of three kinds of entity at once really change all that much?

What is a 'demon'? What is a 'man'? It is through this narrative that I shall provide you with the only ounce of objectivity on this matter that you will ever receive. After all, it proves nothing if I put an end to your insolence if you're already half dead when our bout begins.

I continue to ponder the girl before she suddenly makes a soft, yet clearly audible noise. It sounded more like a gasp than anything else, but it at least proved to me that she hadn't died of shock the moment she looked at me. More importantly, she was now trying to speak.

"…A…Are you…?"

I was now somewhat impressed with her. At least she'd managed to pull out at least some portion of a sentence. There had to have at least been _something _driving this girl to try to communicate with the likes of me no matter how impossible it seemed – more importantly, she _had _woke me up, so there was at least something about her that was relevant to my interests. I would figure that if she'd been looking for me in the first place like her pair of words seemed to imply that she was likely part of some grander scheme that I'd set in motion at some point in the past.

I study her trembling frame for a few moments –

And then I see it, mostly in her eyes.

Chinami Okazaki. That same look – that same look was in her eyes the day that demon claimed her arm.

And then I started to frame things – this girl was doubtlessly a descendant of the woman partially responsible for the birth of this consciousness. And just as 'fate' dictates, she has come here to wake me from my slumber.

"Are you… Are you the Furude clan's demon?" Her voice becomes much firmer all of a sudden, taking me ever so slightly off guard. She was clearly trying to hide her fear as best as she could, but as was the case with most humans she did an awful job of it.

I consider responding, first trying to see if I could respond at all. I definitely knew this tongue – but perhaps this condensed form of mine made it impossible to speak. I already knew I could no longer revert to my demon state as my mother's sealing magic entailed, so I suppose it was worth a shot.

"Child…" I speak, barely above a whisper. "…Child." I speak with more firmness in my voice. It would seem I didn't need human features to communicate with her after all – this certainly made things easier for me. Now while I _am _all powerful I am _not _all knowing – there were too many factors present here that I was ignorant of. The easiest way to remedy that fact was to question this girl. "Tell me your name."

She hesitates for almost a full minute before she eventually gives me a response. "…Ryuugu Rena."

"And where are we right now?"

"…Inside the Saiguden. It's the forbidden-"

"I know what the Saiguden is, child of man… And why, may I ask, are you here if you know it's forbidden ground?"

"…I came here to look for the Furude clan's demon… Because Hina…Onigafuchi is…in danger." She stutters several times before getting her full thought across. "…And I… I need your help."

I almost felt like laughing. A human had broken a severe taboo because they had needed help from the very thing that threatened to destroy them. Was this girl stupid enough to believe that one of the most dangerous demons in the history of this village would offer her assistance? It was once my goal to watch Onigafuchi burn – perhaps she _was _ignorant of this village's history.

"You ask for my assistance… Yet you seem to offer nothing in exchange."

"The only thing I have to offer you is my soul."

"Oh?"

"…There are people precious to me. People that they're going to make me kill…" Her face falls even further to the point where it is completely obscured by the shadows. "…I don't want anyone I love to get hurt. I don't want to see any of them suffer. I want them all to walk out of this alright – but they're going to kill _everyone_ if I don't kill them…"

Gradually the girl becomes more and more hysterical – I wasn't going to get what I wanted out of her, at least no this way – and so I slowly move closer to her. I attempt to test the boundary of my current capacity – I manage to materialize what at one point had been my monstrous demon arm in the space just in front of her.

Her head darts back upward – she almost starts backing away again, but I grab a hold of her head before she can go anywhere and hoist her off of the ground effortlessly – she instantly freezes on the spot, surrendering herself to me. Did she place so little value on her life that she'd lose it right now? Or perhaps…

I invade her mind through my extended arm – and in a matter of moments I'm filled with all the memories of this girl.

Her memories told me more than her words ever could – this was a child placed in a scenario that even the once powerful Riku Furude would cower at the mere possibility of.

I understood it all clearly –

This village had changed drastically over the years. Hinamizawa, as if was now called, was on the brink of disaster – because of man trying to become something akin to God.

How foolish. There is no sense in such an aspiration. How can man become that which man cannot even begin to understand? This girl seemed to understand that – she knew the futility of what the person in her memory with a heart of pure black was trying to accomplish, but she was forced to play by their rules at the risk of everyone that lived in this village.

I could see the faces of five people – five people with names and stories of their own. Five people this girl loved ever so dearly. And for the sake of those five she was willing to abandon every other person living in the village – but she did not. She would not. She couldn't bring herself to almost directly end the lives of so many people. She was going to kill the people that mattered most to her for the sake of everyone else around her.

She was going to kill them for people that hated her. For people that had forced her out of the village once before. But deep down she had the same will that had driven Riku Furude to his ultimate decision to sacrifice my mother for the sake of the village – but this child was willing to go so much further. She was willing to be hated eternally and be forever alone if it meant being able to protect those very people.

But why? Because she could love humanity for what it was underneath the insolence and inferiority complexes that drove the human race into the mud eons ago. Because she knew no matter how twisted people were there was something inside of them that was worth protecting.

_Kill your friends one by one, or Hinamizawa will be wiped away._

She chose the former out of a sense of duty. And had come here because she knew that her human weakness in the face of the latter was too much for her to overcome on her own. So she placed her fate in the hands of a demon.

If there was anyone worthy to replace the undignified Furude clan in its entirety it was this girl. She understood how things truly were. She knew of her own weakness and she knew that the way things were she had no way out. Even now she knew that there was no true way to escape from her plight but even then had come here to ask for help. She had chosen to call upon a terrible demon to resolve her plight, even if she had to give up her life in exchange.

I decide then and there that this would be the one –

My grip on her head intensifies. Both of us are engulfed in a blinding light –

And I am now standing there, in a human shape, identical to this child in every way sans my yellow eyes, black hair and perhaps my slightly shorter height. My consciousness has firmly merged with her own and created a new entity – an entity far more human, yet at the same time far more demonic than the last.

Her body feels as though it was my own all along – pure and unadulterated, but strong enough to house the burning flame that embodied this girl's will to survive and protect.

I am the Frozen Flame. I am fate incarnate. But now I am more than that – I am an embodiment of this child, and everything that she stands for. Rena Ryuugu – one worthy to govern her own destiny. One worthy to become the master of her own fate, to safeguard the true nature of death.

As one we are neither Rena Ryuugu nor the Frozen Flame – we are the guardian of death and destiny, Nebiros.

She stares at me, completely stunned by my sudden transformation. I didn't blame her, if I was being honest. It made sense for a human to react in such a way – although now that I'd adopted all of her human facets down to the last personal detail, I knew – I knew that what she was expressing now wasn't fear. In fact, she was as calm and collected as possible.

She was acting. She was pretending to be in awe of me. She was trying to get me to like her. She was trying to play the role of man in the face of that which man did not understand.

But she knows – she knows everything. She knows the difference between 'demon' and 'human', more so than any other human I'd ever seen before. But even then she is only human, so she is still uncertain. She is not all knowing. She is flawed, yet strangely gifted at the same time.

She is a perfect human being – one worthy of this degree of imitation. And even though I've imitated her to such a degree I still am unable to unravel her entirely –

There was a mystery to the human mind – a mystery that perhaps only Rena's mind was capable of solving.

That was why I made my decision –

"If you're willing to offer up even your soul…" I look up at her, speaking in her own voice. "Then I, Nebiros, the will of fate, will come to your aid, child of man." With that I wrack my newly obtained brain and after a few seconds of silence I smile warmly at her.

In a matter of moments she smiles back – alas, she is only human, but despite that it would seem as though she knows what my smile represents. But even then, she's still only human – she isn't perfect. That was why I was going to become the perfect Rena Ryuugu, and in the process become a demon unlike no other.

That was the reality of this three faced nature that I am.

I am one third of fate incarnate. I am one third the flesh and blood of Yatagarasu and demon. I am one third Rena Ryuugu, the perfect human being.

This is who I am.

And this is why things are the way they are.

This is why I seek the death of all things – and above all else the death of Rena Ryuugu and the flesh and blood that comprise me.

All that should be left is fate.

Because no matter how perfect, no matter how demonic, no matter how unadulterated and no matter how pure –

Rena Ryuugu is on the verge of complete collapse.

Rena Ryuugu is at wit's end. And through no fault of her own.

There is no escaping the inevitability of this world – of the universe that I have created.

That is why I and I alone must end it.

* * *

_16 Days Remain (June 14__th__, 1983)  
__Nebiros, the Frozen Flame_

Very quickly I discovered that I was unable to leave the Saiguden in my physical form, so I took to hiding within Rena's own shadow, following her wherever she goes. I already knew the basis for her day to day interactions but seeing them in action certainly didn't hurt. Despite having a demon lurking in her shadow she didn't seem perturbed by it in any way – she was about as mentally strong as I'd expected her to be. For someone like her to be so close to the edge was something that I could only barely fathom.

It was on the evening of the second day that I discovered that I was able to move independently of Rena's shadow, but only in confined sections of the village that she spends large amounts of time in. It was sort of a pain but as long as I knew where Rena spent her time – and for the most part I did, although the replication and merger of her consciousness with mine left several details on her end somewhat murky – I could generally move freely.

For the next few days I decided I would let Rena roam freely without attaching myself to her – she needed at least a little peace of mind to even function at all so I spent some time eavesdropping on all of her friends – she was close enough to all of them to have spent enough time near their places of residence and I found it easy enough tracking them down.

Over the course of three days I met all five of them more or less in person. The five people that Rena loved so dearly. And how ironic it is that they all have ties to this village's ancient history –

Mion Sonozaki. The least personable of the group despite being its leader. Her past was dark and for the most part clouded by the deeds she'd done for her precious family that time and time again seemed to devalue her more than anything else. What she wanted more than anything else was love – it was for the same principle idea that Mao Sonozaki the second had died for. It would seem that unresolved, but not entirely unrequited love runs in the family. Overall I'd pick her as the first one of these children to snap under the pressure.

That brings us to her sister, Shion Sonozaki, who was supposed to have been the elder but due to some irrelevant twin swapping this did was not the case. Shion was as bound to a human male she held unresolved feelings for as much as her sister was – but what didn't help was that the two poor souls with Sonozakis after them are almost completely identical in every way. Shion is clearly a lost soul who is hanging on by a thread – but the moment that thread snaps all hell will doubtlessly break loose.

We then have Satoko Houjou, the younger sister of Satoshi Houjou, Shion's would-be lover who went missing over a year ago. She spends her nights on Furude property and spends her days hiding her insecurity behind a pompous and overly annoying personality – she's an example of a failed human being who is unable to live on their own no matter what. Her existence is trivial at best – her purpose fails to amount to anything and her reliance on her brother makes her unworthy of the light Rena shines in.

And then we have you – Rika Furude, the bane of my existence. Clearly, you are nothing more than just another human being. Clearly there is no more to you than there is to Satoko or anyone else around you. The two of you are only bound to each other because of the similarities between your own brands of terror – there is nothing more to your relationship than that. You may seem kind and caring but it's all just a cover for your flawed existence. You may believe in your idea of self but ultimately all it does is cause you to suffer even more. You are a creature that lacks all common sense and will never give up under any circumstances – your so called strength of the heart is nothing more than your inability to understand _me_. That is why you will never defeat me – but of course you will never accept that fact, so pointing it out now won't do either of us any good.

But it's almost funny – out of all of them, you are the one who has fought for humanity the hardest. Yet now you have become the least human of all.

But the last is certainly not the least –

Keiichi Maebara was probably the most interesting of the lot. He wasn't particularly outgoing but stood out enough for the five girls that surrounded him to become infatuated with him for various reasons in an absurdly short amount of time. Out of the bunch of them Keiichi was the one with the least apparent problems but he certainly had them – plenty of them, in fact. He'd even confided several of them in Rena. He'd been unable to live his life the way he'd wanted to. Other people had prevented him from being who he was – and he'd apparently done something unforgivable in the process of dealing with it. He evidently sees his arrival in Hinamizawa as a way to completely start his life over – in effect he was running away from his human weakness. Rejecting it down to the very core. Slowly but steadily he was rejecting everything that made him human – he was trying to block everything out, much like Rena had been. Whatever reality he was hiding away, he was protecting it with his life – he was far too similar to Rena, but he held onto his idea of self for dear life. Even then, taking his bloodline into account it only makes sense that he'd have inherited his family's sole weakness…

These were the five – the five that Rena was willing to die for, but at the same time the five that she was going to kill.

But she asked for my help. She wanted me to do something for her to help her – I had no idea what, even with my extensive knowledge of her psychological state.

But as the days went by I began to formulate my own reasoning for why she'd called out to me.

It was very clear to me that no matter how close the five of them seemed to be, there were incredibly thick walls between them. None of them would let any of the others in – they all had secrets and they were willing to take them to the grave.

But then there was Keiichi – the only one who despite the numerous problems and difficulties he never spoke a word about had no such walls. He was an open book – but even then it became blatantly obvious that no one really understood him, or his inner plight for that matter.

That was why they all loved him. Because they all thought he was perfect. They all thought he could solve all of their problems for them. I'm sure you're familiar enough with this aspect of the story by now –

Keiichi was like an angel sent down to them – but an angel that ultimately only one of them could have had. That only one of them could have been saved from. Mion needed him to escape from her isolation. Shion needed him to release her sexual frustration. Satoko needed him to replace her brother. Rika needed him to convince her that she had a future despite what was happening to her.

Even Rena needed him – because she loved him so dearly, and he was the only one who could have loved her back. He was the only one who could ever validate the sacrifices she was going to make – it was no wonder why she had chosen to wager her soul on the whims of a demon. She was only human – and she had no other way out. She needed him more than the others ever could have – and now she would have to kill him to satisfy a black heart.

I knew this sort of horror – this was doubtlessly the work of the Once-Demon King Helmai. There was no other explanation for a heart so black to exist.

But even then, the rest were in just as dire a position. Shion loved her sister and didn't want to break her heart. Mion and Rena were evidently best friends and neither wanted to hurt the other. Rika was in a similar scenario and likely had a better idea about the level of mistrust amongst them than any of the others. Satoko was afraid of simply losing her brother for a second time. But even then they would all have turned on each other without a second thought if it meant they could have their future.

In a sense, Keiichi _is _an angel – a cruel angel.

It was laughable.

It was ever so laughable.

So why did I find myself almost moved to tears?

Perhaps Rena's human half had momentarily gotten the better of me.

I had to ensure that such instances would not occur again in the future.

In the meantime, I spent what time I wasn't spending hunting down and investigating Rena's close friends figuring out what a girl like her could possibly have done in her spare time, which in this age was something that just about everyone had copious amounts of. I didn't really see any of the typical stuff in Rena's room that Mion or Shion had in their rooms – she didn't even have anything particularly masculine like Keiichi did – there was just a lone porcelain doll sitting by the window closest to where she evidently slept that evidently Keiichi had given her. Rena hadn't told me about that herself – but I'd gone into a quick relapse and pulled the event from her memory. The joy she felt from receiving such a stupid looking thing that didn't even have any hard work put into it was almost enough to make me smile – I hated it. I contemplated destroying it entirely, but doing so would likely do some decent damage to Rena that I really couldn't afford her having.

Furthermore there was the issue of her father – her mother was long gone and her father was obsessed with trying to tie another woman down to him – he'd fortunately enough never gotten all that far with it, but he'd evidently been seeing Miyo Takano, who evidently was one of the people responsible for blackmailing Rena into killing her friends. The more I learned about Rena's situation the less I wanted to know about it – but I was determined to crack her 'self' wide open.

At the time I had only really just been curious. But in retrospect I can say with certainty that understanding Rena is most certainly the key to understanding my motivation. You would do well to remember that.

I ultimately decided to start partaking in the usual human pastimes of eating and sleeping – both required extremely little effort, but the human third of me loved the food and thoroughly appreciated the sleep. Imperfect and utterly hopeless creatures like the majority of the human race would certainly enjoy themselves if this was what they did all day long – from my hours of wandering the streets listening in on modern human conversation I learned of 'television' and proceeded to watch the large television set Rena had in her living room.

It sort of kept going from there. After I'd learned all I was going to learn from Rena's friends I spent every waking hour trying to make sense of the strange world humanity had created. I'd learned that snack foods were terrible for your health but plenty of people ate them because they tasted good. I'd reasoned out that video games were a completely pointless but highly entertaining way of wasting your time when no one else was around. People evidently now wore different styles of clothing as to further their concepts of 'self' but would never really stick for one for too long. Personally I just took to whatever Rena had in her closet – she didn't seem as strangely obsessed over her appearance considering the lack of anything particularly flashy.

As I learned after… certain… _degrees_ of experimentation undergone while watching the television rather late at night long after Rena was asleep I determined that pleasure and ecstasy were both other elements that humans seemed to prey on to a large degree. Luckily it wasn't anything too unruly in modern society, but in my brief experience with both elements I figured that it could only get worse.

After all, it was nothing like the old world – there was no search for power or dominance on a large scale. Government and regulation had effectively destroyed those desires. Man had subconsciously accepted the inevitability of the world it lived in and had defaulted to bliss and ignorance to survive. It was as though everything had gone according to the demons' grand plan.

But if people like Rena exist, then could there have possibly been a better path for man to take…?

It was on this evening, the third evening, that we resume our present tense narrative. As I had guessed, Rena had spent an entire three days trying to gauge me – which she most certainly found to be an impossible task considering how she knew virtually nothing about me but a name that I had given her. She seemed relaxed enough around me after only three days, however, especially considering how she let me into her room unconditionally despite that clearly treasured item of hers was left unattended.

She had returned home from school for the day – she'd gotten home rather early that day, so chances were her friends weren't meeting for their club.

"Welcome home…" I mutter out of reflex. I had been resting on the couch in the living room eating a bag of chips and watching the news – I'd gotten a little too human for my liking, but I was at least getting a kick out of all of the stupid things people were arrested for doing that the news seemed to cover more than anything else.

She sort of stops in the middle of the doorway staring at me. I lazily look in her direction.

"…What're you looking at?" I mumble, forgetting to swallow my food before talking. There were far too many subconscious human actions that seemed to be governing me on my quest to resolve my fish-out-of-water condition, but for the time being I would try to indulge in them – it would likely make the whole situation easier to deal with.

"Where did you find those?" She asks with a rather plain face, pointing to the bag of chips.

"In the cabinet. These are supposed to be the healthiest ones, right?"

"Yeah, but… You shouldn't really eat them all the time, you know. You'll get fat." She says something perfectly normal but as awkwardly as possible.

"You underestimate me. Nebiros, the will of fate, will _not _grow fat! Such a thing would be insanity." My eyes drift back to the television set before darting back towards Rena who was still staring at me incredulously. "…Might I ask what you're staring at, child of man?"

In a few seconds Rena suddenly bursts out laughing. It's relatively tame, but it's a laugh none the less.

She was laughing at me.

At _me_.

Why I didn't smite her existence from the face of the earth with the Onigari no Ryuou at that very moment is beyond me.

"A-Are you seriously laughing at me right now? Do you understand what outright –"

"I'm sorry." She cuts me off, still giggling somewhat. "It's just… It's like I have a little sister all of a sudden."

She would regret having ever said that… After I finished watching the NHK. "You overestimate our relationship." I mumble before sighing and turning away from her, leaving the bag of chips on the table next to the couch. "I am not of man, nor of demon, I am-"

"Well, no matter what you are, you're definitely _acting _like a little sister would."

I glare at her and make my eyes glow yellow, this time sending her the message that I didn't want to hear any more of her talk. My glaring manages to scare her and she quickly apologizes in a hysterical voice before rushing upstairs.

…Although despite my obvious anger she _did _have a point. A-At least somewhat. I had as much control of her house as a sibling would. I'd welcomed her home when she walked through the door – it was her human half that was causing all of these sudden human outbursts.

But that was it. Our relationship was more of a scientist and guinea pig sort of relationship rather than a sisterly one. After all, I'd told her nothing about myself.

Although I already knew pretty much everything about her.

I put it out of my mind. There's no sense in mulling over something so clearly unimportant and uninteresting. I would break her down to her basic human components. And I would leave her to die, no matter what he request ultimately turned out to be. I would never consider doing what she asked of me anyway.

Later that evening something random occurs to me.

In all of these unnecessarily lewd programs there's always some sort of a soft rectangular thing – well, not always, but for the most part there's usually one or more involved in any given one of these weird programs.

…What was it called?

Oh, right – a bed with a mattress. Evidently it was a soft thing to sleep on. Although the couch I'd been sleeping on was plenty soft as it was – why exactly did people need beds if they already had couches? I ponder this for a good deal of time before I simply conclude that a bed is probably just softer and just makes a person more relaxed – that would be the primary function.

…I find myself wanting to know what sleeping on a bed is like.

It suddenly occurs to me that Rena had such a device in her room – I'd mostly spent my time in there rummaging through her closet and I'd completely ignored it when I'd seen it.

Without any further delay I head up into her room –

As soon as I open the door it occurs to me that beds are used primarily for sleeping, so Rena would likely be sleeping in hers.

As I had guessed, there she was, not entirely asleep but clearly trying to get to sleep – she wasn't facing the doorway, but the moment I'd opened the door she'd turned in my direction. There was an ounce of uncertainty in her gaze when she'd first faced me, but the moment she realizes who it is she relaxes.

"Did you need something?" She asks me. For someone who knows how terrifying I'm supposed to be she's pretty indifferent about it.

"It's nothing important, I… realized I'd never known what a bed was and remembered that you had something describing it in your room… I was just curious, alright?"

Her expression softens as she smiles tiredly at me. "Well, you can sit on my bed if you'd like."

I blink several times. Well, if she said so, I might as well. Although I was under the impression two people were only supposed to be on one of these when they were…

I put the thought out of my mind. I sit down on her bed – indeed, it was much softer than the couch. It would probably be easier for me to fall asleep on one of these, not that I had problems sleeping on the couch downstairs.

"Huh. This is actually nice than-" I let out a yelp as Rena suddenly latches onto me and drags me down onto the bed with her. I struggle momentarily, but it then occurs to me that physically she's technically stronger than I am.

"You know… For such a nasty demon you're pretty vulnerable right now." She laughs in her unnecessarily cute-mode voice, pinching my evidently extremely sensitive cheeks before rubbing the side of my face against hers. It was something she did to Rika a lot – but I certainly wasn't enjoying it anywhere near as much as she would.

"H-Hey, what do you think you're doing?!"

"Ooh, that's an easy one. You're going to spend the night here, okay?"

"What makes you think I'd want to do something like, that? You seem to be forgetting that I'm-"

"I don't care what demon you are or what will you're the embodiment of or anything like that." She says blatantly.

…Did I even hear her correctly?

Did she just say that my nature as a demon was virtually meaningless to her?

"…Did you not summon me with the intention of –"

"What I want comes later." She pauses briefly. "I'm not sure how to put it, but when you… touched me, whatever you did had some effect on me too. I saw something terrible – I saw a bunch of flashes and I felt… I guess I felt sadness. You've been sealed in that shed for two thousand years, you said? I don't really know the details. I'm sure it's probably worse than anything I could imagine. But it doesn't matter who you are – even if you're not really human, you've got all of that sadness pent up inside of you. I know you're supposed to hate the world and everything – but even then there are things that are worth living for. That's why I want us to be like sisters – so you don't have to be so sad all the time. So you can try to live for once."

I don't have anything to say to that. I can't bring myself to say a single word.

"You have to have a normal name, right?"

"…I'm sorry?" I realize she'd asked me a question.

"_Nebiros, the will of fate _can't be the only name you have, can it?"

"…I don't have any other name. That's who I am."

She sighs. "Oh well. Well, if that's the case, can you start calling me Rena instead of that whole 'child of man' bit?"

"…Once again you seem to be overestimating our relationship. I am here to observe you and…" I trail off when what she'd said a few moments earlier finally sinks in. I sigh in resignation.

"Well, I hope you see things my way in the morning. Good night." She says with a yawn before releasing me and returning to her sleeping position.

I don't move a muscle.

I was virtually stunned.

I can't even begin to express the amount of confusion I'd felt in that moment.

We both knew what her circumstances were. We both knew she was going to be forced to kill the people precious to her. She had summoned me to help her. I already knew the identity of the person she doubtlessly wanted dead, but she asked virtually nothing of me.

And now she was saying something like this.

This wasn't 'good will'. This wasn't anything of the sort.

This was something completely different. There's no comparison between the two.

This was ignorance. Ignorance of the worst kind.

…No.

This is…

* * *

_15 Days Remain (June 15__th__, 1983)  
__Nebiros, the Frozen Flame_

The entirety of the following day was spent pondering. I still had no recollection of what part of the human mind could make someone say the things Rena had said the previous night. I couldn't seem to pinpoint any particular reason, no matter how many sappy romance shows I watched or how many times I had wracked both of our brains for a reason – it was simply illogical down to the core.

Rena has no reason to help me relieve whatever sorrow she was talking about. I'm not sure what she had seen, but I definitely had no recollection of any of it. There was nothing that stood out in my memory that would have led _any _human to aim to do something so utterly pointless. People live together and ultimately kill each other as it suits them – there isn't anything more to it than that. Perhaps the standard had changed somewhat over time, but in the end people ultimately come together in groups because they cannot live alone – it suits them to join together.

But there was nothing that suggested Rena had anything to gain out of any of this. She had raised me from my slumber to do something, but she wouldn't tell me what. She just let me go about living like this under conditions that were probably about as good as they could get for someone without a completely tangible form.

What was the purpose of all of it? I simply couldn't tell.

And more importantly, why did she value the same world that was slowly destroying her so much?

It made no sense. And even though I knew every feeling she'd ever had I simply couldn't ascertain why she'd said any of those things the previous night. And it was slowly driving me mad.

The hours fly by as I continue to contemplate Rena's moment of insanity. I try to reason it out as many ways as were possible – but none of them yield anything of use to me.

Eventually Rena returns home – I was on the couch once again. Once more I subconsciously say 'welcome back', although this time she doesn't react in any way.

I suddenly feel the vibe –

Being one third Rena let me know when something was wrong with her. It didn't seem like much of a positive point, but it was about to serve its purpose.

I look over the edge of the couch – she's still in the doorway. Her eyes are absent of all emotion.

I get up and walk over to her. "Did…Something happen?" I try to express concern as best as I was able.

I get a better look in her eyes –

This was a gaze I was all too familiar with –

"Keiichi-kun…" She murmurs barely above a whisper. Her whole body is very slightly but very clearly trembling.

I immediately know what has happened –

There was only one reason why Rena would ever appear this way. One reason and one reason only – even if the boy in question were dead, she wouldn't appear this bleak.

Mion had betrayed her. She'd taken Keiichi for her own and in such a way that Rena had been completely caught off guard by it. I could even theorize that she'd caught them in the act.

I find myself moving entirely out of reflex – without a single thought into what I was doing I almost instantly pull Rena close to me. I embrace her.

"Infidel. Ignoramus. He's just another person. If he can't see what you've put yourself in for his sake he doesn't deserve to live. He's nothing more than proof of humanity's pointlessness." I pause momentarily as it suddenly registers that I've said something. "…You don't need him. You'll never need him."

Rena's gaze reflects something – shock, at first, but then the same dull look from before. "But I do. I need Keiichi-kun. Without him I…"

Her entire body trembles fiercely as she breaks down completely.

I try to recall –

What part of Rena's mind had made me do this?

What part of that one third do I want to destroy right now, more than anything else?

…

But then I realize.

No, this was not a memory from Rena's mind.

This memory belonged to me –

And I remember that time, so long ago –

This gesture of affection –

My mother had shown me this, even if only once –

"…You wanted to know if I had another name?" I keep speaking by no will of my own.

Rena's hysteria dies down momentarily.

"…Saya. My name is Saya."

She looks at me, her eyes full of… I am unable to tell what. Gratitude? No, this was…

"…Thank you, Saya." She smiles at me, her joy breaking through her impervious sorrow even if only for a moment.

And so I awoke to the truth of humanity. The truth hidden within the truth.

And it is this truth that Riku Furude used as his weapon.

It is the same truth that you rely solely upon.

And it is the same truth –

That I will wash away for all eternity.

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

Random trivia time: In the original draft for _End Dreamer _Saya was going to be an amnesiac Rena. However, considering how done to death that plot twist was at that point I decided to turn her into who she ends up being in the final. The two are still physically identical in every way – well, aside from Saya's height, of course. And her hair and eyes because she's Yatagarasu's kid and all, so yeah.

So if you haven't spotted the trend yet, the first episode is the sappy subplot episode, while the second turns into a horror film, while the third sort of wraps things up. That is for the most part the case with this arc. Although the third episode is probably going to be far and away the strangest part of the entire story and yes, I know I've probably said that about every single arc so far but I seriously mean it this time. You will get to the end of the third episode and you will have _no idea what the hell is going on_. That's the whole point of it.

So look forward to that. Episode 2 will likely be released within the next week. I'm honestly going to try and see if I can actually finish the entire story within the confines of this one month, but if that requires rushing then that obviously won't be the case.

The ending _is _pretty much set in stone, though. It has been since the start.


	19. Empty Skies Chapter, Episode 2

_**Empty Skies Chapter, Episode 2**_

_Fragment: In A World of Closed Time  
__0 Days Remain (June 30__th__, 19083)  
__Rika Furude_

Why am I here?

Where am I, even?

What is the purpose of all of this?

I almost reflexively check my right arm – Dreamer is nowhere to be seen. Furthermore the wings I had seemingly sprouted earlier had completely vanished – I also feel much smaller but at the same time rather comfortable to the size change. If I had to guess, I was likely back in my old body – the body of Rika Furude.

I was supposed to be …All I can remember is the Frozen Flame – Saya – telling her story, but –

Perhaps she'd sent me here? Perhaps this was the last stretch leading to the Crucible? But if I was in Rika Furude's body, then this must have just been another fragment.

But why? Why would she send me here? Wouldn't it have been easier for her to kill me outright?

Whatever I was here to do, she likely had an elaborate reason for it – it was up to me to decipher that reason.

I wake to find myself on a hard, cold, and for the most part lifeless surface. There is no light to speak of – there is nothing but the darkness surrounding me and the cold sensation pressed against my skin in this close space – this is nothing like the Mason's Cage Saya had talked about. This is simply a cold, dark, and desolate room, built by man to house man. But my body trembles regardless – this human weakness was something I hated more than anything else. It was part of the reason why I wanted to abandon my humanity altogether. But it was weakness that I felt as though I would be lost without.

At first it's as though my senses need time to acclimate. My eyes could not fix to the darkness with such an apparent lack of lighting, but at some point the ringing stops and I can hear the slow, rhythmic pang of water droplets against the floor, and further in the distance…

The air is dense. The ground is cold. A draft of air chills my bones. The stench of burning incense blocks out all other scents with its repulsiveness. It's as though I'm a prisoner in some sort of cell. But even then I could still hear them – those accursed cicadas. The sound that haunted my memories more than anything else.

I try to tune them out – that incessant sound would drive me over the edge before anything else would. But all that was left was the pang of the water droplets. And before too long that sound became incessant as well. But eventually a second drop breaks the pattern – but soon that drop breaking the pattern becomes just as monotonous, as does an apparent third drop, and fourth drop, and fifth and sixth – I try to cover my ears – but it was all to no avail.

Suddenly I recognize this place, or rather I draw a parallel to it – The noises were rhythmic and unchanging. There was no light to speak of. The air was cold and dense. This place was nothing more than a sealed off world of nothing – nothing but the sound of the cicadas and there incessant crying, with a slight sound occasionally inspiring hope that the unchanging would finally change, even for only the good part of a moment, only for that change to become unchanging as well.

The feeling was identical – this place was no different from that glass prison I'd been trapped in, even if it was only slightly larger. And at the same time it was doubtlessly similar to that wooden prison that had kept Saya locked away for two thousand years.

I hadn't really believed her before when she had told me her confinement had done horrid things to her, or at least had implied it. But Rena was certainly right – even something like the Frozen Flame could have suffered. For now I was trapped in an almost identical way – and even though only a small amount of time had gone by, I was already being pushed to my limit…

The only thing I could recall before this moment was the scene in Rena's house when Saya had consoled her. But after that – simply nothing. There was a gap in my memory – why such a thing was even possible was beyond me.

Eventually I try to stand – it turned out to be more difficult than I would have liked – apparently my left foot had been sliced open as per the stinging sensation that shot up my leg from trying to stand on it, and the floor was slippery enough for me to trip on easily provided my lack of shoes or even socks. I eventually decide that sitting back down is the best choice of action –

I had tried not to think about where Saya could have possibly been, but at this point there was nothing else left to think about. For some reason I felt as though she was close by despite the nature of this room – although the chances of her being here with me were certainly up there, considering how I had no idea of how large this room was. Literally all I knew was that I had enough room to stand without bumping into the walls.

I have no idea why I've been sent here, nor do I even know if this was the fragment Saya had been showing me. There was no way for me to know if she'd just sent me here forever, but I felt as though that was not the case – she was trying to tell me something. Something important. But inexplicably she'd stopped her narrative and left me here – where was this place? Was this even anywhere at all? It could have been somewhere near the village or at least in the general area based on the cicadas…

…Although to that extent, it didn't matter _where _the cicadas were, as long as they were there, screaming away endlessly, I would never truly forget who I was and what I had failed to do for the longest time. Perhaps _that _was what Saya wanted to show me?

As I continue to ponder, I am caught off guard very suddenly by a sudden sound – a cry, although a more human cry than a cicada cry.

And then a voice rings out – not in the room around me, but in my ears themselves. The sound is soft, but at the same time somehow excruciating – I clench both sides of my head out of pain as I'm bombarded with what I believe to be Saya's voice.

_Rena had come home from school. Her mood had yet to improve, but at least to some extent she seemed a little bit more relieved than she had yesterday. _

_She offered to take me into the city that afternoon – it was certainly an idea, considering I'd never been into a larger city before. _

_Despite how large the city seemed to be there was no doubt in my mind that Rena could find some way to enjoy getting lost in it. And we did so for several hours as it became somewhat apparent to me that losing oneself in human society was vastly different from losing oneself outside of it. _

_We didn't return home until well past midnight. Rena's father didn't even seem to notice she'd been gone – I reasoned out that Rena was likely distressed by the lack of care her father seemed to direct towards her despite how she was willing to kill her closest loved ones for his sake. _

_I decide to cheer her up by watching her favorite movie with her before going to bed. She passed out on the couch before the movie even finished – she was so relieved that she had someone at her side late into the evening that she had found herself relaxing for the first time in possibly months. _

And just as suddenly as the voice had started up it vanishes – and in another instant a bright light suddenly snaps on above me –

Spilling in through a hole in the ceiling was some sort of fluorescent light, obscured by metal bars that went horizontally across the gap. It managed to light up the room enough that I could make out the wall based on the glistening coming off of a damp surface not all that far off to the left of me – it would seem that this room was mostly rectangular since there was no reflecting anywhere in front of me or behind me for that matter –

I suddenly take note of myself – aside from what seemed to be that green dress I wore a lot I had nothing else on – my left leg was bleeding profusely, or at least _had _been bleeding profusely. It seemed to have stopped at this point since the source of the bleeding did not seem to be open, but the blood on my leg seemed to be fresh enough.

But then I finally take notice of it – my right arm has been somewhat numb for awhile now, as was the right side of my body for the most part, but I had assumed that was because I'd been sleeping on it for whatever extended period of time I'd been asleep for. But that wasn't the case –

My right arm was, simply put, not there –

In its place was what seemed to be a black, potentially wooden replacement for it with five fingers and everything – but the strangest part about it was that I could move it as though it were my own arm. I simply couldn't _feel_ anything. But what was somehow even stranger was what was attached to the wrist – several wires were stuck into it. Wires that attached to something that seemed to move further up my arm.

I follow the wire – to find that there was some metallic piece attached to the side of my face that I'd never even realized was there. I try to move it – but I feel a sudden prick at the back of my neck as I do so. It would seem that wiring seemed to go _inside _my body as well.

And so I had to know –

What was the fate of the Rika Furude of this fragment? How was this sort of scenario anything short of fantasy? What sort of fragment was this to begin with? I had to find out – for if Saya was showing me this it must have been something more important than I could have ever imagined.

I find myself trying to stand again – but I rise a bit too shakily and I fall right back down onto my knees. If I was having _this _much trouble trying to stand, just how long had I'd been asleep for?

I once again try to stand – it's another shaky start, but I manage to get up on both legs – I take one step forward and I fall back onto my face – I hoist myself up with both arms, the wooden arm slipping as I try to do so. I find myself using my left side to lift myself back up before _that _arm slips on the wet floor and I crash into the floor again face first.

I sit myself up and let out a sigh. I find myself wallowing in the darkness despite how there was a light so close by – as time passes I find myself more and more disturbed by the modifications my body had gone through and I almost consider tampering with the metal piece to see how much I could do to it without killing myself.

But suddenly –

Out in the distance, clearly somewhere in front of me – I hear a sound echo off the walls.

It was humming – there was someone in this room with me, or perhaps by the light above. And they were humming. It was clearly a male voice with a tinge of depression in the sound of their voice.

They were humming the Ode to Joy – the fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

But…

Why? And…

And who could possibly have been down here with me?

I force myself to stand again – this time I more or less have my bearings, although my main reason to stand seemed to be to figure out where that humming was coming from –

I start walking forward –

And as I do the light above me goes out altogether. It seems to short out, as though it was perhaps set to automatically go on periodically but lacked the maintenance to stay on for particularly long. The cicadas grow louder – but suddenly a dim light suddenly permeates the darkness further ahead –

Soon I realize that it is the moon shining through an evident gap in the ceiling. It must have been completely enshrouded with clouds before –

I can now ascertain the shape of the room. It was built in a cross pattern, with a more circular center and four branches leading further into the darkness –

At the very center seemed to be what was likely chunks of the collapsed roof. The moon above seemed to shine in from relatively further away than I was used to – it would seem that this room had been significantly far underground – for the entire roof and whatever floors there were above this one to collapse, this place must have been either extremely ancient or it must have been blown away by nothing short of a few tons of explosives.

The humming continues – as the moon shines through more thoroughly, I manage to make out a figure sitting on one of the large chunks of rubble.

It's a boy – perhaps as old as Keiichi or a little older, but to that extent not _that _much older. His hair was about as white as could be, as was the paleness of his skin and the color tone of the trench coat he was wearing. His eyes were a sort of darker shade – I would say closer to red than brown.

But the strangest thing was the chains – chains dangled from underneath the hem of the coat and from the edges of his sleeves. Even more chains covered his right arm entirely while others seemed to be wrapped around his neck and hung off to the side like a scarf.

Eventually the boy takes notice of me and his humming stops.

After several moments of silence I consider speaking – but he beats me to the punch.

"It's been a very long time." He speaks in a voice that I'm certain I've heard somewhere before, but to this extent I simply can't place it.

"…Am I supposed to know who you are?" I knew without a doubt that there was no one quite like this anywhere in Hinamizawa, even in 2036 – I was beginning to think he wasn't of this world either.

"That's relative, I'm afraid." He responds with a wry smile. "But it's been a very long time since someone has appeared in this world of closed time."

"Closed time?"

"Why yes, are you unaware? This world has already ended. What is left here is nothing more than an inevitability – even if the world were to end, time is a dimension that will always march on. That was the basis for this degree of creation."

"But who are _you_, and why are_ you_ here?"

"That also is relative, I'm afraid."

"How long was I asleep for?" I try to put the cryptic nature of his words out of my mind for the moment – I had questions that I wanted answered.

"You were asleep for as long as I have been awake… Perhaps your being here is an inevitability all on its own?"

"What happened to this place?"

"It was a tragic moment, indeed – but even if the walls of this place were to crumble to ashes this place would still serve its purpose… Can you guess what that purpose might be?"

"…To imprison me? And to some extent imprison you?"

"If all man sought with a prison was to imprison another man, there wouldn't be much point – man is always locked away, one way or another. No, you are not here to be imprisoned. You are here for another purpose altogether… Tell me, do you recognize this place?"

"I assumed I was somewhere near Hinamizawa."

"You are at least partially correct in that estimation, but at the same time this place can no longer be considered Hinamizawa."

"And why is that?"

"This is a world of closed time. Judgment has already been passed to this world – and nothing will ever change it."

"So you're saying the Disaster already occurred?"

He raises an eyebrow – it was the first sign of emotion outside of that wry smile that this boy had shown. "Already? Could you have possibly predicted such an event?"

"And if I could?"

He smiles again. "Ah, 'and if you could' indeed. It would have made more sense to ask 'if you _would._'" I knew what he was trying to do – he was trying to get me lost in his cryptic answers. The moment I started to question them would be the moment I'd lose myself in my confusion. For some reason he was testing me – he was making a hell of a first impression, at any rate.

"What do you know about this place?"

"When the tunnels under this village were built eons ago, they were built to transfer the populous of the village over fairly large distances. In all technicality, this place is part of those tunnels, although somewhat removed from them at the same time."

"The tunnels built by the Sonozaki family, you mean?"

"Indeed – the Sonozaki family built these tunnels with their own blood and sweat. They have existed almost for as long as this village has stood. And within these tunnels are more than the simple torture chambers you've come to know all too well – there is _much _more to this place. There are almost countless things hidden within these tunnels."

"Is it possible to _find _what's been hidden down here?"

"Over the years most of the tunnels were sealed away with the shifting in the earth or the crumbling of the support. Doing so would certainly seem like an impossibility – but that doesn't mean that the tunnels had stopped existing once their usage ran out. These tunnels have always been here, and even if no man will ever walk their depths ever again they will still stand. Even in this world of closed time."

"…But what if man _could _still walk their depths? What if man _had_, and very recently, at that? What if whatever else is hidden down here is important?"

"You wish to know how you came to end up here?"

"I thought that was self explanatory."

"That I'm afraid I cannot tell you."

"…Then what _can_ you tell me?" I was beginning to get a little impatient with him – if he wasn't my only source of answers in a room full of questions I'd have probably beat him to death by now. Although considering how his body language seemed rather relaxed despite all of those chains I had a feeling I wouldn't get too lucky.

"You are here for a purpose. What purpose would you wager that might be?"

How on earth was I supposed to know_ that_? Although if I thought about it, Saya had likely placed me here for one reason and one reason only.

"…To understand something. To maybe find something too."

"To find, you must search. To understand you must first know what you should be understanding. If that's the purpose of your being here, then what must you do to achieve that purpose?"

"I would have to find…"

"There are only two possibilities. One, you have already found but lack the understanding. To resolve that you must simply search for the capacity to understand. Two, you already have the capacity to understand, and all you have to do now is simply search… You called this place a prison? But perhaps this is something different entirely."

I try to follow the logic to the best of my ability. "But if this _isn't _a prison…? Then what could it be? Is _that _what I have to find? But if I've already found, then how can I bring myself to understand?"

"You believe this is a prison. If this prison is what you have found, then you must simply come to understand this prison. But if you have not found, than somewhere in this prison must be what you come to understand… Either way…"

"…Either way, there's no way I could ever begin understand which is which…"

Something suddenly hits me.

Saya hated me down to the core for my more human aspects. She'd placed me here in this scenario with no explanation. She had brought me to face something I could never possibly understand. Something I could never verify logically. If this boy's words had any legitimacy to them, I lacked the ability to not only understand where I was, but the ability to understand what I had to understand.

This was a dilemma. The sort of dilemma that Nero, Astaroth, and all the other demons I'd met or heard about had always attributed to humanity.

Was my goal to run away? No, because I was already doing that –

I hadn't tried to find a way out. I had simply stayed put and accepted that I had no means of escaping.

In my heart I had admitted defeat when I stopped to think things through logically.

My logic was a one way road. If I were to overcome whatever it is Saya had placed me in, I had to overcome that two-dimensional way of thinking.

Before I am Rika Furude, I am a human –

I am a human, and I am trapped.

No matter what sort of cage it is, I am supposed to desire freedom from it.

Therefore I must escape.

If there was any truth to uncover within these depths –

That would be the way to find it.

I suddenly hear the clatter of chains.

The boy raises a rather shaky hand and points behind me – I turn around to see another light flickering off in the distance.

"Your path begins in the dead of night… But if you hold on to the light in your heart you will prevail… Go forth now, and fate will guide you… I'm afraid that's all I know to tell you."

I turn back towards him. "Regardless, you helped me come to a decision… Thank you."

He smiles somewhat sadly. "There is no sense in offering gratitude. This is a world of closed time – it will never matter."

"I don't believe any of that stuff for a second. You really shouldn't either." I turn away and start heading down the hallway.

He laughs slightly. "I will be sure to remember that, child of man."

I stop short. "…Before I go, I would very much like to know your name."

"I believe I already-"

"Even if this world is cut off from everything else, I assure you that I am not… Please, just tell me your name."

He hesitates for a few moments before eventually responding. "…Kaworu." He speaks a little too softly. "…Nagisa Kaworu."

"…Then thank you, Kaworu… I don't know why you're here, but –"

"There is no need. This is a world of closed time. That is all that matters to me."

I fail to come up with an adequate response to that. I decide to leave him in the moonlight as I head off into the darkness.

Once again I hear voices in my head –

This time it's a different voice –

It was Dreamer's voice, just as disembodied as Saya's had been.

_The rules are simple:  
You must escape with your life.  
__If you ever admit defeat in your heart, the device attached to your head will overload and kill you.  
__Even for you, who is not of this world, death is eternal.  
__You must abide by the rules of every room in this prison. You will be penalized with death if you break a rule even once.  
__Failure is not an option._

…_Huh. I wonder what these are for? _

* * *

The path ahead eventually turns into the same pitch black darkness from earlier, but at this point all I cared about was escaping – all I had to do was keep going straight, and eventually everything would be made clear to me, or at least a little clearer.

The path was about as cold and damp as the cross shaped room had been – the floor beneath me was built of stone which seemed to suggest against the whole Sonozaki tunnel bit Kaworu had mentioned. This whole area was seemingly too recent to have been built years and years ago, although I had to admit that archaeology wasn't something I knew very much about despite my enhanced mental repository.

I continue into the darkness, the occasional flickering light in the distance casually letting me know that I was still going in a relatively smart direction – the cicadas continue to hum in the background as they provide the only distraction from my rapidly declining body temperature – the more time I spent in these caverns the colder and colder I'd become. Provided that I were in my enhanced body this wouldn't be a problem, but unfortunately that wasn't the case at the moment – I had to remember just how weak and fragile this body was. Ironically enough my muscle memory did not acclimate to this form very well – I'd been in this body much longer than I had been in my enhanced one, but even then that body felt more natural to me than this likely ever would again.

It wasn't all that surprising – I'd cursed this body once. Probably more than once, if I really thought hard enough about it. There wasn't much redeemable from this body – especially from _this _body that if I understood things correctly went through a very particular brand of abuse.

Eventually I come to a wall – although it was more like I'd run headfirst into a wall, rather than just happening to find one. I feel around for a continuation of the path and after figuring out where there _wasn't _a wall I continue forward – I come to several more walls in the process as the path stretches on and on – eventually it becomes so maze-like I have to wonder if I'm actually going in circles at this point.

It gets to the point where enough time passes that I become frustrated. There wasn't much sense to any of this to begin with, but now I had no way of knowing where I was going in the slightest – there were no more flickering lights. All I had were my hands and they wouldn't be a good enough replacement for a lacking sense of direction.

That was likely the point to this whole place – you were unable to trust your eyes for more than a few seconds at a time, and without your eyes you couldn't process anything even remotely based off of visual cues. Despite the sophistication of the human brain, or if I'm being completely accurate _because _of the sophistication of the human brain, the loss of sense leads to severe ineptitude on several levels.

Some people who build their thought processes solely around visual cues or are simply fundamental visual learners and use their other senses to contribute to what they see will sometimes become nearly completely inoperable under these conditions. Even if their other senses were heightened to make up for their lack of sight there is a point where human biology and the nature of the human brain start exchanging glancing blows. Without their sight people can become neurotic on an extremely dangerous level, sometimes losing their ability to maintain control over themselves and, in the worst case scenario, even be driven to suicide.

That is because without sight, they know nothing. Humans fear what they do not understand, and humans who cannot understand without their sight will become completely controlled by that fear.

Furthermore, people see the truth with their own two eyes. Without that visual component people cannot understand the truth. People who cannot live without the truth cannot live without their eyes.

To find what you must understand, or to understand what you must find in order to understand what you have already found –

Neither of those two possibilities seem to make much sense if you think about them from a linear point of view, but –

What was that line again?

…Right. 'Your eyes deceive you. Don't trust them.'

Those possibilities can only make sense if I discard that way of thinking – non-linear thinking would be the ultimate solution to all of this. So if I couldn't see, then the solution would be to rely on my nervous system – to rely on touch to determine the path I was supposed to take.

I continue through the maze, focusing myself on the two imbalanced sensations at my feet – my sliced open foot would feel the surface beneath me one way, while the other would feel a different way. Using that sense of touch I could perhaps discern something about this maze.

After seemingly aimless wandering and consistently repressing all the 'what if' scenarios slowly building up in my head I eventually figure out that I am indeed going in a complete circle. Despite the wet floor I'd managed to ascertain several things about the floor – there were several somewhat larger puddles of water buildup, ever so slightly larger than the others, that would dull the pain in my sliced foot, five in total, that I seemed to come across fairly consistently. This helped me establish a sense of direction, coupled with my intentional process of only turning right at every wall I came to. Eventually I located three particular dead ends located near three of those larger puddles – my other foot in the meantime mostly convinced me that the surface of the floor changed at almost fixed intervals in my movement pattern, changing from stone to marble to what seemed to be wood. Two of the dead ends were located near the wood panels while the third was just to the left of one of the puddles and directly adjacent to a randomly placed marble panel. Furthermore, the third was at the end of a relatively longer path than most of the others were, suggesting that there was either additional depth to part of the maze or an additional path protruding from it.

As it stood there were three possibilities – one, this section of the maze had an exit by one of the dead ends, which I very quickly verified was not the case. Two, the maze itself was not a maze but a circular room with jagged edges that simulated an extending hallway. Three, in other words the most logically acceptable possibility, this entire section of the maze _is _a dead end and there was a hidden path between one of the walls I hadn't noticed.

I decide to put option three out of my mind and consider the second – if this room were indeed completely circular, all I had to do to verify it was move diagonally from any wall I'd come to – and so I do, only to find myself running right into another wall several seconds later. I don't let myself lose heart, however.

It takes me no more than three seconds to confirm that this was new territory – the water buildup was now up to my ankles. It was significantly deeper here than it had been anywhere else I'd come to before – more importantly, this wall was significantly further away from the wall I'd moved across from, so I'd most certainly never come close to this wall before. I decide to once again begin moving around the wall using touch as my guide.

As I do so that third option slowly starts to creep back up in my head – the thought was there, clear as day – _what if this was all pointless? What if I'm going to be stuck here forever?_

Of course the more I thought about that the more that device attached to my head began to heat up – no, I couldn't give in like that. Otherwise I wouldn't have a chance to get out of here anyhow.

I move along the wall, hugging it as I move around several corners – but one of the corners I reach has no wall perpendicular to it – the wall seemingly comes to an abrupt stop here. I reach around – sure enough, there's another path parallel to the one I am walking on the other side of this wall. Without even considering where this path would take me I head straight down it – I eventually come to another wall in front of me – and that wall cuts off after a very short distance as well – I consider taking the newly exposed path, but then it occurs to me – if I head in that direction, I'll essentially be going backwards, won't I?

I finally have it – my sense of direction. I have my path forward –

I continue in the direction I believed to be straight – and eventually I come to another wall, although this one is significantly more circular than the others had been – I begin to follow this wall around, and sure enough it moves in a very tight, circular pattern. This could have simply been a support pillar, but I would never know if I didn't examine every inch of it –

Eventually my foot gets caught on something on the ground –

I reach down and grab whatever it was and try to get a feel for what it could have been –

I feel something smooth and circular – but then something jagged…

After a few seconds I find two sizable holes in the object – and move my hands downward –

This sensation – teeth.

I put two and two together rather quickly.

I was holding a skull.

I yank on the skull – the sound it produces suggests that I've pulled it free of whatever was binding it. More importantly I discover that I have also set free half of an entire skeleton with it – the remnants of what had likely been a young child's body are covered in some cloth – likely whatever was left of a dress. From that I had to assume the body was female –

But more importantly, what happened to the lower half? And what had it been stuck on?

I crouch down to find a hidden path going underneath the wall – this was likely my way out, but at the same time this had apparently been where this person had died.

I crawl in a short distance – something blocks me, but not another wall – instead it feels like a loose panel of some sort.

I try to lift it – it's extremely heavy, but it moves eventually. It only moves up somewhat and comes crashing back down with the force of a knife. Based on the sound it makes I had to assume it was some sort of metal – a metal panel that likely had come down on this poor girl and killed her, or at least sliced her in half. I try lifting the panel and this time taking the skeletal remains and using them to hoist the panel up with my arms as extra force as I try to move underneath it – the tension makes knots in my chest, but I manage to worm myself underneath the panel despite the amount of pressure the weight of the thing tried to force down on me.

I move all the way through and quickly let go of the panel and drag the remains to my side as the panel comes crashing back down.

What seemed strange was that this person had been facing _away _from the center of this pillar shaped area when they had been killed – perhaps this _was _a dead end after all?

Before I can think it over any more, the moment I crawl out the other side I accidentally press some sort of pressure plate in the floor.

A light flickers on above me and I realize that I'm standing in front of what appears to be some sort of an elevator with a small light suspended above it. It looked as though this was a way out, so why was this person heading toward –

The moment I glance back at the corpse it all makes sense.

The dress –

This green dress –

This was Satoko's dress.

This corpse –

This was Satoko's body.

Had –

Had Satoko died…

…Trying to _find me_?

I can't bring myself to cry for her despite the circumstances.

I've seen her die right before my eyes one time too many –

I stand up and head over to the small elevator – it looked old and seemed rickety enough when I stepped onto it, but it held my weight. I press what I assumed to be the 'up' button on the panel built into the side and sure enough the elevator slowly begins its ascent.

Once again I find myself in excruciating pain as Saya's voice rings through my head.

_It was in that city that I met him – Saturn Anne. Rena had been a bit standoffish when we'd first seen him, but by my insistence we – or rather, Rena – spoke with him extensively. I decided not to force Rena to feel uncomfortable for too long so we left his office building once she'd… verified a few things for me. She'd only asked him about his past involvement with the village and he brought up a particular child more than once, but from that alone I'd learned all I'd needed to. _

_Why was I so insistent?_

_Because I knew who he was – I knew the light in his eyes._

_It was the same light in yours. _

_The story of Saturn Anne, or Ivan Furude, if I'm going to be completely accurate, is rather simple._

_His father was a Russian politician – a man with great pull in the Soviet Union, who had planned on forcing the Japanese Yakuza to take up the Soviet cause, starting with the Sonozaki family. Rather unfortunately, in the process of trying to gain himself a strong foothold in the village, he fell in love with one of the more recent Furude women – your mother, Rika. _

_She realized this, and so she seduced him. She hated your father – she hated the life she was being forced to live. So she slept with a complete stranger for a simple change of pace. That was all there was to it. _

_The Sonozaki found out about the affair with the complete outsider and direct threat to their control, and to ensure that the Furude house would learn from its mistakes, the family employed their most professional of killers to put an end to the whole incident while simultaneously telling the Soviet Union to stay out of Hinamizawa. _

_Can you take a guess as to who that killer might have been?_

_That's right – Jack the Ripper._

_Or more accurately the previous Jack – Oryou Sonozaki. _

_The politician was murdered, but your mother was with child regardless. _

_Ivan was the result._

_That's right – he's your brother. _

_Even if only through the worst circumstances. _

_And your mother turned him over to cruel foster parents living in Soviet territory who would do nothing but torture him for twenty long years. _

_It was through confirming these details, not directly, of course, that the Furude clan was as contradictory as it had always been._

_And so he returned to Hinamizawa in 1981, seeking only to completely destroy it for what it had done to him. Your friend Satoko fell in love with him, and by exploiting those feelings his revenge was finally within reach._

'_Implicate the Sonozakis.' 'People need a common enemy.' 'I don't want you to have to suffer for this. I swear no harm will come to you.'_

_No matter what he'd told her, he always known the truth. The real truth. The truth that you've wanted for so long. But his desire for blood was so strong he'd take that truth to the grave if it meant the Sonozaki name would burn. _

_How ironic is it that the taste of his revenge was so sweet that he'd found himself rejecting the only form of true love he'd ever received all his life?_

…_Did you ever think your mother was capable of such an atrocity?_

_No, right? You wouldn't be going through any of this in the first place if you truly did. _

_Perhaps what you ultimately lack is 'understanding' after all. _

I found myself beyond rational thought after hearing that –

Every time I thought of my mother, I thought of the loving character she seemed to embody back when I was ever so young, so long before any of this had begun – but if Saya's words were true, then such could not have ever been the case. She couldn't have been such a caring mother if she had left her firstborn son to die.

Then perhaps – did she hate me? For being the product of the life she didn't want?

That had never occurred to me before –

I had relived the life of Riku Furude, a man that I knew virtually nothing of – but now it had come to light that I knew even less about my own mother.

How could such a thing be true?

Was Saya lying?

No, that couldn't have been the case –

I recall a fragment I experienced long ago. A fragment that Hanyuu had created herself in order to test my 'resolve.' In that fragment she had me kill my own mother to progress to the next world. Could she had been... All that time, did she...

Regardless of my appalled state of mind the elevator eventually grinds to a halt – a pair of double doors opens automatically and I step through, trying to put these thoughts out of my mind, at least for the time being.

* * *

I come to a much better lit area – it would seem as though I was done wandering around in the darkness much to my relief, although this room seemed rather odd in its own right.

The room was somewhat small and rectangular and composed mostly of large, white tiles that covered both the floor and walls, but the ceiling from which several large light fixtures hung from was far too high for this room to have been built by any good architect. On the far west side of the room were several beds with what seemed to be medical equipment next to each one – the same could be said of the east side of the room, although on that side there were several boarded up windows that no light seemed to break through. This was some sort of infirmary, at least by appearance. I had to assume by the presence of the windows that I was at least above ground at this point, although I had no way to know for sure.

I stare at the far wall that for some reason just seemed plain _odd _to me. There was a lone door on the far right side, but that wasn't what seemed odd – sure enough, after I blink several times words are rather instantaneously engraved into it.

I hear Dreamer's voice reciting those very words in my head.

_The rules are simple:_

_You must reach the exit while stepping on the smallest number of tiles possible._

_If you do not succeed in five tries, the device attached to your head will overload and you will die._

…_What sort of twisted game is this?_

I remember an aforementioned rule from earlier – if I didn't follow the rules I'd die regardless. So whatever twisted game this was I had to abide by the rules or I'd never escape from here. Trying to test otherwise was a pointless endeavor, so I decide to start reasoning out this strange puzzle.

The tiles were large enough, but that really didn't matter – the point was to get from this point to the doorway while stepping on the smallest number of tiles possible.

I try once. I move along the wall in a straight path, intentionally trying to fail this first attempt. Right triangle logic suggested that only a diagonal path in this rectangular space would fit the requirements – when I fail the words on the wall disappear and the door locks itself. Furthermore, I am allowed to freely walk back to the entrance without risk. I take this opportunity to gauge the smallest number of tiles I could move across, which was seemingly much easier to ascertain from the doorway after I was no longer being pressured to make a move. The moment I make it back to the tile in front of the elevator the words reappear on the wall and I am once again on a limit.

My second attempt I figure will be my last – but sure enough I fail once again and the words on the wall disappear – I had three attempts left, although now I had to start thinking out of the box –

I try twice more – on one attempt I take several large leaps from one tile to a tile several tiles across. On my fourth attempt. I try to do so from a completely different angle, but I find myself taking even more tiles than I had on my third.

I only have one attempt left.

I sit on the first tile by the elevator for a long while. The beds I had to assume didn't count as tiles, but they were too far away to be of any use to me –

And then the moment my eyes dart upward I figure it out.

But how would I –

I turn back around – against the wall near the elevator entrance, somewhat obscured by the darkness, was what appeared to be a stepladder.

Now, as amusing it would be for me to hop on a stepladder all the way to the door, I decide to take a slightly less absurd path and use the stepladder to reach one of the light fixtures –

The fixture I grab onto not only holds my weight but sways back and forth – all I had to do was shift my weight and leap from this fixture to another one, and gradually reach the door…!

I almost slip when I jump from the first fixture, but I soon get a rhythm going and find myself on the other end of the room – I drop off right in front of the door way and sure enough the door remains unlocked.

I sigh with relief and head through –

Only to fall over into whatever room was past it when Saya's voice once again rings painfully through my head.

_Rena asked me lots of questions that night, but eventually she figured I had wanted to know more about the more personal details of what had changed overtime and forgave me rather quickly. I was curious to know why she had been so against speaking to Saturn Anne, but ultimately I'd decided to put it behind me. _

_The following morning I decided to follow Rena to school – she spent the bulk of the day with Keiichi, Mion, and the others, but there was clearly more tension about than there should have been. Of course Mion seemed to be at the point where she had to take Keiichi out of the room to talk to him at all while Rika and Satoko seemed to be more focused on whatever problems they were having._

_I could see how things were for her – I didn't want to see her put through this any longer, so that afternoon on our way home I asked her –_

"_Tell me – what is your request? What do you want me to do? If you want me to kill that woman, then just say so!" I'd shouted at her, but I didn't care enough at the moment – at this point I was close to doing anything for her unconditionally, but she still wouldn't tell me what she wanted._

_She was about to give me some sort of a response when it happened._

_A white van came crashing into me – _

_A white van – _

_A man in a lab coat stepped out and stood over me – _

"_How marvelous…" He'd whispered. "This is simply…"_

_After that a man in a public service uniform appeared in my line of sight._

_I could hear Rena shouting – screaming my name._

_And in a matter of seconds I knew no more –_

_And before I could ever even verify what had happened I found myself awake in the bowels of the Irie Clinic._

Once the voices stop I try to stand myself up –

It would seem that Rena wasn't the only one who could see Saya after all. But the man in the lab coat, and the mention of the Irie Clinic – it was too obvious to be a 'maybe'. Irie had captured Saya – but what happened next?

The only way I would know would be if I kept going. That much I knew for certain.

I stand myself up –

Only to be faced with something outright ghastly.

* * *

The apparently perfectly square hallway beyond the door aesthetically is similar to the previous room in terms of the white tiles on the walls, floor, and ceiling, but all of them are riddled with blood – or rather, riddled with messages written in blood. The ceiling was completely covered with them, half of them being completely unintelligible with the other half being just garbled words that wouldn't make phrases even if you sorted them around. The lights were smeared with the blood as well, letting only small blotches of light through them. I decide to explore this hallway only if to put the eeriness of it all out of my mind.

This seemed to be the average floor of any normal hospital – there were nurse stations at the end of every portion of the hallway and patient rooms that lined the walls – all of them were empty of course but half of them were completely locked – others suspiciously had no doors to speak of while other rooms were outright filled almost waist high with blood. Wheelchairs were overturned, vials of chemicals were broken with their contents seeping onto the floor, computer monitors were smashed into a thousand pieces – it looked like a tornado had gone through his hall, followed by a mountain lion and a horde of angry shoppers.

Eventually I came to what I believed to be a doctor's office – the nameplate was worn out but I could make out the letters '_S a Klim'_ engraved on it in that particular order.

Inside was an average office, with cabinets full of files and desks filled with random things – only the files were all completely empty and the only things inside the desks were what seemed to be fairly fresh human intestines.

The wall behind the largest desk was painted from top to bottom with an actual intelligible message, repeated several times.

_Two Milkmen, Go Comedy_

I slowly creep out of the room, the message drawing my confusion for far longer than it had to as I continue down the hallway. I pass another office on my way around with another worn out nameplate, but the door was locked and so I pass it up.

A nurse station on the west side had a fairly large computer set on a large table that seemed fairly operable, mainly due to the lack of a completely shattered monitor like all of the others had – sure enough, power is flowing to it. I decide to see if it could tell me anything of value.

I boot it up – it runs on DOS and only displays one line of text –

_Shicksal Never Forgets_

The name 'Shicksal' sounded familiar, but I couldn't place where I'd heard it before.

I try to tap keys – none of them seem to do anything at all. I verify that the keyboard was plugged in before I start tapping things again. This computer had to be here for a particular reason – I most likely had to type in something very specific before it would do anything.

That strange message suddenly pops up in my head.

_Two Milkmen, Go Comedy_

I decide to type that in for the hell of it – and sure enough, the moment I do the screen suddenly lights up as unintelligible characters pan across its entirety before suddenly disappearing.

Then three sentences appear on the monitor – and Dreamer's voice in my head once again recites them.

_The rules are simple:  
A  
__Y  
__R  
__K  
__M  
__I  
__E  
K  
W  
I  
H  
T  
O  
__I  
C  
__For you there are more hidden messages then there are stars in the sky, some more abstract than others.  
__But no matter no bleak a code can appear, it can be deciphered.  
__Two Milkmen, Go Comedy.  
__Decipher the message in this phrase.  
__When you have followed the information to the end, there are three lines you must input:  
__The first line is two words in length.  
__The second line is three words in length.  
__The third line is three words in length.  
__You have nine guesses for the first, nine guesses for the second, and nine guesses for the third.  
__If any of these attempts expires, the device attached to your head will overload and kill you._

…_Now this is just incredible. Who in their right mind could solve something like this?_

It was as though he were taunting me. I was going to beat him up for it later.

I immediately stare down that phrase and try to look at it from every which way. I had to assume it was an anagram for something.

But…

_Two Milkmen, Go Comedy_

_Two Milkmen, Go Comedy_

_Two milkmen, go comedy_

_Two milkmen_

_Two Milk Men_

_twO milK meN_

_Owt Klim Nem_

And then I saw it –

'Two Klim Men'

It clicks all too suddenly –

The name on that plate.

I quickly run back to that room and reenter the office with the '_S a Klim' _engraving. The word Klim was in fact a name –

The moment I enter the room I notice something very apparent –

Eerily enough, the message on the wall had changed. But I was certain that there was no one else on this floor with me…

_sensei is giving me advice:  
_"_I was you"_

I take a mental note of the message, as nonsensical as it was, and head out of the room –

The message read 'Two Klim men' –

So then the perhaps the other office –

Sure enough, the door is now unlocked –

I almost trip and fall on a sheet of paper almost directly in the doorway as I enter. I pick the sheet of paper up –

On the sheet are innumerable statistics that I couldn't make any sense of, from bar graphs to pie charts with completely nonsensical characters labeling all of them. But at the bottom left corner of the sheet was one particularly comprehendible sentence.

_Adams Subject #13  
__Basic Hamon tEsting RESult: Mismatch, FaILurE  
Phantom Hamon test: SuceSS  
__Proceeding with S. Platinum Projection Phase_

I flip the sheet over –

_Kill Yatagarasu lose everything  
_"_Will be me"_

That phrase made a haunting amount of sense, but more importantly it bared some resemblance to the other message – this was likely all I was going to need, based off of how I likely had my two three word messages already.

All I had to do was figure out the first two word message.

I head back to the computer – luckily nothing about it had changed. I just had to move the mouse to bring it out of standby.

I stared at the screen again, trying to reason out the first input from what I knew.

_Two Klim men._

The two Klim men were likely the two doctors. Considering how the device on my head could essentially read my thoughts I was fairly certain that the reason the other door had unlocked and the reason why the message had changed was because I'd come to that conclusion. So then perhaps the first input were the two names I didn't know – their first names.

I knew the first name of the first doctor I'd gotten a clue from was '_S a'_, or at least included those letters.

I referenced the messages that I had found in both rooms:

_sensei is giving me advice:  
_"_I was you"_

_Kill Yatagarasu lose everything  
_"_Will be me"_

…

…

…

I take one final look at the two before I begin my input.

The first input:

'_S a'_

_Sensei Is Giving Me Advice_

_S A_

_SIGMA_

So that would mean…

_Kill Yatagarasu Lose Everything_

_KYLE_

_#Sigma Kyle_

_#CORRECT_

It would seem as thous my initial guess had been correct. It was a simple as taking the first letter in each word from both phrases and order the names from right to left. So then the last two were just a matter of ordering those two sentences?

…

_#I was you_

_#CORRECT_

_#Will be me_

_#CORRECT_

…

_#YOUR DETECTIVE, SHE KNOWS EVERYTHING_

The screen gives me that line before it suddenly cuts out.

It would seem that I solved the puzzle, but –

Suddenly all of the lights go out all at the same time – I'm left in the darkness for all but a moment –

The lights go back on and on the nearby wall is a door that clearly wasn't there before –

And a skeleton wearing what was doubtlessly Mion's favorite set of casual clothes was sprawled out on the ground next to it, with one lifeless, bony hand resting against the doorknob.

I sigh, moving towards the door. I gently touch the corpse's hand – but the moment I do it crumbles into dust almost instantaneously. I pause briefly only to let that sink in before I turn the doorknob – on the other side is a set of stairs leading downward into further darkness. So now I was going back _down_?

I had no other path to take – I have to go this way, even if logic says otherwise.

The moment I start heading down the stairs Saya's voice once more picks up, but I find myself ignoring the pain as best as I could as I continue down the staircase.

_Irie Kyosuke was the man who'd captured me. Because for some reason he knew – he knew all about me, but on top of that he and his men could see me. _

_He only visited me six times – but each of those times he let slip vital information that let me in on all of the juicy details I'd been deprived of._

_I can only be seen by people who possess a quality – the Hinamizawa Syndrome, which based on the description was the name that man had given to the biological defect that the members of the Jaeda clan had been born with – heightened paranoia in exchange for supernatural clarity. It was how they were such proficient diviners and fighters but how when placed under pressure they cracked so readily. It's only self explanatory how the people of this village came to possess that same defect. _

_So Rena possessed that quality. Or rather she'd been brutally awakened to it. _

_More importantly was the fact that I, a demon, could only be seen by people with that quality, so Irie Kyosuke must have had it as well, along with Miyo Takano and all the others who seemed to acknowledge my presence. Although in Miyo Takano's case it seemed as though she was less receptive to me and more inclined to assume that I was there despite how she was evidently some kind of doctor. _

_But that was it. I learned nothing else. The rest of my stay there was simply an instance of confinement. It was cold, desolate separation from the rest of the world. It was something that I now hated to the core –_

_This was just like back then. When I was hidden away in a wooden box for two thousand years, only now the prison was larger._

_I believed her now – I believed Rena. She was right – my confinement had done terrible things to me subconsciously. _

_And now I was taking the toll – and I would continue to take the toll._

_That is until one day they tossed in a young girl with me – _

_She was much younger than Rena. No older than four or five at the most. Her hair was some unnatural shade of silver while her eyes were almost blood red. She was scared senseless – but I saw it in her eyes, as I had in Rena's. _

_She could see me. She could speak to me. And the first thing she did was ask if I was okay._

_I later learned her name was Yoko – no last name, simply 'Yoko.' _

_And despite her circumstances, she was quite possibly the most positive child I'd ever seen. _

_We spent the remainder of that week and most of the next in confinement together._

_And in that process – _

_It was like I had a little sister all of a sudden…_

_This feeling._

_This feeling is identical. _

_But at the same time..._

* * *

The staircase wound in many directions, but eventually it was clear that I was heading down. It was as though the staircase's length was dependant on the length of Saya's story, as once her voice stopped I was able to make out a door in the far distance – I head straight for it and open it.

I find myself in a hall way – at the far end was a massive set of double doors with the words 'Other Way' painted conveniently enough onto them. I take their advice and face the opposite direction – a door with some sort of red light shining into the hall from behind it. I waste no time opening it, and on the other side is –

A wave of heat, so strong I felt as though it could've burned me away. I'm forced to grit my teeth in pain as the sheer heat scorches my face. All faces of this room had the same white tiles from all of the other rooms, but most of them had been scorched black from the sheer heat that this room seemed to inexplicably exert. There was nothing inside the room but a lone door on the far side, two air vents on the two walls perpendicular to the doors that may have had something to do with the heat, and what may have been someone's burnt remains at the center of the room.

It was now or never – _this _was the true challenge that the 'defeat in your heart' rule existed to provide.

I take a step in – I still couldn't give up. If I gave into pain, no matter how severe, I'd die anyway. I couldn't just walk away from this.

The door closes behind me as my entire body almost immediately starts to cook. It must have been at least over two hundred degrees in this room, but at this point it was too late to back out and try again when my nerves had calmed down. I didn't even try to cross the room to the door – I knew it would be locked. There was no way it would be that simple.

A full thirty seconds go by – and across from me words are suddenly engraved into the door. Once again Dreamer's voice echoes in my head.

_The rules are simple:  
__You must escape this room.  
__You cannot use the door you used to enter.  
__You cannot use the door in front of you.  
__There are no secret entrances in this room.  
__At the same time there are no alternative entrances to speak of._

…_Sounds too simple. There's probably a bigger risk to this one._

And he was right about that too – on the bright side the suicide device would probably be burned to a crisp long before I was, but I'd be toast in no more than five minutes regardless. I had to think this through as fast as possible. But the heat alone was enough to block of my cognitive thinking altogether. It was simply too hot.

I had limits as a human being. This was one of them.

…There are no other entrances. I can't use any entrances to get out of this room.

Then how the hell was I going to get out?!

No matter how many ways I thought of being able to escape this room every way would possibly be considered an entrance.

There was no point. My skin slowly burns away as I slowly but steadily begin to lose heart.

Of course, at that point it's only a matter of seconds before I suddenly realize the nature of these rules.

In a previous room I had to cross it under certain conditions. But I had discovered an alternative to that – a way that made it impossible for me to lose.

I can't use the door behind me. I can't use the door in front of me. There are no alternative entrances. There are no secret entrances.

Those were the only requirements.

But what _is _an alternative entrance? What _is _a secret entrance? All it says is that I can't use the doors.

But if there are no other entrances…

…

But…

Do I have to use an _entrance_ to escape this room?

My eyes quickly dart to the air vent closest to me.

I put whatever energy I have left into a full out sprint towards it – I find myself able to grab a hold of it and I manage to yank it out of the wall with strength that wasn't my own. Despite the thousands of signals in my brain telling me to stop I grab hold of the newly exposed but at the same time scalding hot ledge and pull myself up and into the newly exposed 'exit'… Or at least I try to. My brain begins to act against me, partially because of the amount of heat it had been forced to retain and my will and body begin to exchange those glancing blows.

I fall from the opening and I slam into the ground back-first.

The burns take their toll. I finally let out a scream.

I force my eyes open despite the pain – my survival is just up there… I can still reach it…!

I don't care if I've got this shitty body.

I'm not dying. Not here.

There's so much I don't know.

And I'll be damned forever if I die an ignorant child…!

I force myself to stand up and move towards the open air vent again – I grab a hold of the ledge.

My hands – my eyes meet my hands. All they are now are bones, covered in lumps of scalding hot flesh that barely have any physical shape to them. I can feel myself going into shock already.

"No… Fuck this… I've always hated this body, and I'll be damned if I die in it… I'm… Getting out… of here…!"

I realize my hands won't be of much help here, so once I've gotten enough leverage I shove my elbows into the gap and I begin to climb. I have so little to lift, yet it feels as though I'm lifting a thousand pounds of dead flesh.

But eventually, despite how many times I almost slipped –

Eventually I manage to pull my waist through the gap.

I'm home free.

I continue crawling. I Couldn't give in just yet.

But even as I do I once again hear her – I hear Saya's voice. At this point I can't even feel the pain. I just continue to crawl and listen.

_Yoko knew I had to escape from this prison. She wanted to help me. But time and time again I told her it was impossible. We continued going about our secluded lives, our only company being each other. I'd essentially been placed in Rena's position – this confinement helped me to understand a fraction of the terror that controlled her. _

_I had to get out of here. I had to save her. I had to help her. I had to put a stop to all of this before it was too late. _

_But I couldn't. There was nothing I could do._

_I was trapped. The possibility for my escape never once showed itself. _

_But eventually, against all odds, a ray of hope shines through –_

_Yoko somehow managed to break the lock on the door confining us. It was late at night so everyone on the upper levels would be asleep. All I had to do was get out._

_I wanted to take her with me. But she declined. She said that her place was here – she knew no other life besides the one she'd been living that whole time. She was fundamentally lost – she had no idea what the world on the outside would be like. _

_I didn't want to leave her behind. But she forced me to. She was afraid of the outside world – and she had every right to be. Once again I found myself embracing a human being – but this time for a completely different reason. _

_I'd shown her the love that Rena had shown me – and now it was my job to ensure that Rena would never lose sight of that sort of love. _

_I had to find her. So I left Yoko behind and returned to the surface, with only one goal._

With that speech I knew –

I'd already had suspicions about the Frozen Flame as it was –

But now I almost knew for certain.

I just needed to hear it from her mouth – in person.

I had to get out of here.

I keep going and going through that shaft until I feel as though I'm about to lose all bodily functionality –

And in that moment the path finally ends. I fall out of the vent and into a black room.

I lie there motionless, my whole body suffering from third degree burns to the point where most of my skin has probably burned away. I try not to think about it –

I look forward. A small light shines through what seems to be a gap in a window. It would seem that I've made it to the end – at least in spirit, at any rate.

But I escaped. I escaped with my life. There was nothing in that initial set of rules that said it had to be a particularly long life afterward.

Before me is what seems to be a relatively fresh corpse – the body is wearing what appeared to be Keiichi's clothes. I had to assume that the body was his.

I find that I can still move my legs, I try to inch closer to the body –

And then I see it – in his open hand is –

I hear Dreamer's voice one last time.

_The rules are simple:  
__The body before you is a victim of murder.  
__You and the body before you are the only two human elements in this room.  
__Yet the killer is also in the room.  
__Who is the killer?  
__And what is the killer?  
Man? Or Demon?  
__You have approximately five minutes left before the device attached to your head overheats and your life ends.  
__If you answer correctly before you die, you may claim your prize and escape._

…_This seems awfully familiar to me. Is there perhaps meaning in that alone…? _

This had to be it. This was the end.

I had five minutes. My body was mostly dysfunctional. But my brain could still think. That was all that mattered.

The only two things in this room were myself and the body.

But the person who had killed whoever the body belonged to was here as well.

If the killer is a demon, the killer is not necessarily one of the two human components.

So that would be the quick answer.

But that still leaves the question of _who is the killer_?

Accepting that the killer is a demon and therefore solving this dilemma –

It really _doesn't _solve the dilemma.

…

And then –

And then I knew.

I knew the solution to Kaworu's possibilities.

I had simply believed that there were only two because he had told me so.

There was in fact a third –

I had neither the understanding, nor had I found what I was searching for.

But now I have found both –

I speak my answer.

And the doors behind the body open. The slight of the sun shines through despite the clouded sky.

I crawl forward and grasp the object in the corpse's hand with what was left of my own – and as my glazed over eyes focus as hard as they could on it everything is clear.

Everything's over, Saya.

Now, say it.

Say it with the words you've woven so elegantly.

I continue to crawl forward, past the body, not even bothering to observe its face.

My left leg seems to fall apart behind me – the bone beneath the destroyed flesh had likely succumbed to the ferocity of my crawling.

But that won't stop me –

And the moment I leave the confines of that space, I'm finally free – I'm out in the open. I've won. I've escaped with my life.

I roll onto my back as the rest of my strength slips out of my disfigured frame.

I reach towards the sky with my mostly intact arm –

"Two milkmen, go comedy… 'Welcome to my kingdom'…?" I speak, intending for my voice to be heard by one person and one person only. "I assure you… It won't be your kingdom for much longer…"

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

I will explain _nothing_. See you all next time.


	20. Empty Skies Chapter, Episode 3

(**Important ****Note**: if you usually skip the ANs at the end, I suggest not doing so this time. Although given what completely unexpected and probably entirely unfair to the character(s) involved plot twist is about to occur here you're probably not going to think to skip it anyway.)

* * *

_**Empty Skies Chapter, Episode 3**_

_From Beyond the Looking Glass  
__The End Dreamer_

Where is this…?

…Ah, this must be _that _place...

There is no sky, there are no buildings – all this place is amounts to an empty plain of white with the marble floor beneath me stretching off into the distance in all directions, further than the eye could see.

Now why am I here?

If I know where this is –

I look around – sure enough, turning around was probably the best move to make.

Floating perhaps four feet in the air were several large stone tablets – upon further inspection, each one seemed to have a set of strange rules inscribed on them, as though they were rules for some collection of games.

I didn't know what possessed me to do so, but I read them all aloud.

This place was certainly strange, as were these rules, but I couldn't help but wonder –

What happened to Rika? Rather obviously I was no longer attached to her arm, but at the same time I had no idea where she was. This could only be problematic. One moment we were heading towards the Crucible and the next –

"I'm sure you must be wondering by now…" A voice suddenly echoes through this strange space from behind me. "…Why it is you've been brought here."

I turn on the spot – and sure enough,_ he's _standing there – the bastard that I'd vowed to exact my revenge upon the next time we met. It seemed like fate was being awfully kind to me considering the circumstances.

Battler, the Golden Sorcerer – a man I despised perhaps more than death itself.

But behind him – behind him, looking off somewhat to the side, was someone I was more than familiar enough with. It was Jack the Ripper – or rather, Mion, dressed in the garb of a serial killer. Why she was here I had no idea, but it likely wasn't for any reason that I could've hoped would be the right one.

"Does this have something to do with me? Or with Rika?" I ask primarily about the strange rules written onto the stone tablets, but it was more along the lines of 'why am I here' anyway.

Oddly enough he gives a completely straight answer. "Her path to victory, the way she was before I… separated the two of you was ensured to end in nothing but hopeless and inevitable defeat. With her mentality there was no way she could have even made it to the top of the Crucible."

"And you're so sure of that because…?"

"The solution to all of this is for her to let go of what she's come to understand as the 'truth'. You and I both know this – the only reason why you ever left your paradise behind in the first place was because you realized this."

"You trapped me in an artificial world full of artificial people and called it heaven. Your guess is so far from the truth that it's almost laughable."

"Really now?" He raises an eyebrow, his expression giving away his clear amusement with this whole conversation. "Then perhaps you _did _delude yourself to believe that she had what it took to put an end to all of this. As far as the Furude family is concerned she's pretty close to the bottom of the rack in terms of intelligence."

"I'm afraid I can't have you insult her like that." I reach for the knife hidden away in my back pocket and in a matter of seconds I've drawn it and moved close enough to put him in my range. "Not that I didn't already have a reason to carve out that smug face of yours, of course."

I thrust the blade forward, aiming to pierce his neck. He doesn't move – I know he isn't taken off guard by my display but even so he should have made some sort of move against me. But at the same time Mion moves forward, clearly poised to shield him. I force myself to stop short, still pointing the knife clearly enough at the nape of his neck.

"This is between the two of us." I speak to her. "You don't have any place in this."

"I believe I do." She responds curtly.

"You're making a mistake. There's no sense in defending him – not after what he's done."

"You're acting as though you're any better."

I don't exactly have a straight up response to that. "Whatever it is you think you're going to get out of this-"

"There's nothing I need to get out of stopping you. There's nothing I _want _out of stopping you. There's nothing I expect to get in return." She cuts me off. "Just killing you will be good enough. Sending you off to the hell where you belong is more than I could ever have hoped for. But now it's different."

"What on earth did you tell her?" I try to get Battler to say more, but he doesn't respond.

Instead Mion continues her tirade. "The more you try to deny it, the worse things are going to be. I've been to your Golden Land. I've been to your personal hell. And compared to the world you're trying to save it's more beautiful than any paradise could ever be. You want a world where people are real? Where people live and act like independent creatures? We had a world like that once – the both of us. But there's no value in that world anymore."

"There's no way that's true. Whatever you've been told –"

"A world with desire and feelings and whatever else comes to mind when you think of the word 'freedom' leads to nothing but disaster. You've seen more of these failed worlds than anyone else has, even Rika at that – you have to understand. And even if you don't want to admit it I know you understood once."

"That isn't-"

"I don't care how many times you've slept with my sister or Rena or Rika or whoever the hell else you've tried to satisfy – all of it amounted to nothing. All of it will never amount to anything. All gratification, success, and benefit is only temporary. There is nothing absolute. There is nothing you can know for certain… That's why I've given up on trying to live in a world like that. People live their lives knowing this, and people who spend that life looking to –"

"Enough." I stop her. "There's no sense to talking like this. It's all just a way for you to run away from how things really are."

She smiles. It's a genuine smile, perhaps even a smile of understanding – but in a moment her smile turns into a spiteful snarl. "So _I'm _the one running away now?"

Before I know it Mion has drawn her sword and taken a swing at me – I manage to back away with enough time to spare but she manages to knock the blade from my hand. As she moves forward Battler seems to move backward, distancing himself from us while Mion begins a series of rather untamed blows that I manage to block with a metal plate hidden under my coat. I was expecting hand-to-hand combat, but not like this. Not with her. There was only so much good my cheaply crafted defenses would be able to do.

Eventually she's been blocked enough that her movements become that much more intense in their ferocity – she doesn't seem to be putting any elegance into any of these attacks. There's nothing in her right now but carnal spite.

"I tried, Kei-chan. I really tried. I tried making that place where we all could be happy. I built you all a roof with my skin and bone and all it did was make everyone want to tear it down. I can't protect any of you. I can't even protect my own sister, let alone anyone else in my family. Let it end – the struggle won't get any of us any closer to what we want."

Taking advantage of the slight pause in our battle I back away and assess the situation in the brief moments of respite I have –

I have exactly three other weapons on my person. In the time it will take for me to get to two of them she will have already closed the distance and probably taken my head off. The third was more than enough of a long shot to use in a fight like this but it wasn't as though I had much choice.

But that aside Mion wouldn't go down easily even _if _I went to my third option. Chances were very much in favor of her anticipating this whole plan anyhow.

Something suddenly comes to mind – and as it does she closes in. I reach into my coat while side stepping. Chances were she'd see this and reposition her next swing, and in that moment I would likely have an opening. Right now her stance was less than stellar and she'd probably have trouble knowing what would suffice as a good counterattack for this move.

But it's too late – instead of repositioning her swing she comes to a complete halt, crouches and rams herself into my lower abdomen – I'm sent flying backward and onto the marble floor.

I don't even think of moving – there was no point. She could easily just toss her sword in my general direction and it would be curtains. This prone position would be the end of me – but the longer I dragged it out the longer I had to come up with some sort of counterattack.

She stops no more than a foot away from me. I could probably manage to get her with something, but –

"Don't you get it, Kei-chan?" She rests the tip of her blade against my forehead. I'd be lying if I said I didn't nearly pass out from the tension. "It's me. It's always been me. I'm the killer – I'm the one who's really been killing everyone."

"You and I both know there's no way-"

"If my memory doesn't fail me… You like a good mystery, don't you? I really don't remember. Or was it your mom that loved mysteries?"

"I've… Become a bit more accepting of them in my old age." I try to respond as calmly as possible.

"Then do you have proof? Proof that it isn't me? Proof that what I'm saying is wrong? Or are you just going to keep on being in the same denial that got you here in the first place?"

"You act as though I brought this upon myself."

"And you think you haven't? Then you must be like Rika – you must blame fate for putting you here. You must blame fate for making all of this happen to you. You're a real idiot, you know that?" Her voice sounds a little more typical of Mion at the very end there – but her eyes are empty. Her face lacks all real expression.

"I spent a lifetime trying to resolve this nonsensical cycle of ours. And in the end I found that the only way to get around it was to put an end to the concept of fate. Humanity needs to be governed not by the whims of the primal force driving it, but by itself. By reason. By things that ultimately are thrown away for gratification. I want to destroy that primal force. There's nothing more to it than that."

"You're a liar."

"…" I try my best to express as little emotion as possible. But she sees right through it.

"…So then you _do _know. And you've come all this way because _you_ want a shot at rebuilding the world as well. Have you even told her?"

I break our eye contact. "…No, I have not."

"So your solution is to stop being human… I wonder if Rika would agree?"

"I wouldn't expect her to." I decide to reply honestly.

"And what would it have come to for you to get what you'd want?"

I had no real answer for her.

…

Well, as a matter of fact…

I _did _have an answer.

I'd hidden the truth from her for so long.

I'd made it seem as though I was there simply to help her. That I had no other purpose than to help her achieve her goal. Being attached to her arm for long enough was more than sufficient enough to get her to believe that.

But that was never the case.

Instead…

When it comes down to it –

What I want, as colorful as I'd made it sound, is rather simple. Although perhaps for it to make sense an even more colorful explanation is in order.

When fate is eliminated, the One True Primal Force that governs the very fabric of our reality will die. And the force that negates fate must become the One True Primal Force in its place. At the same time, the power of fate becomes a power of that force. Simply put, whoever destroys fate will not only become the power to reshape the sea of fragments as Astaroth had said, but –

They will become fate. They will become the One True Primal Force.

If by destroying fate the world will change dramatically, but not only dramatically, but by the whim of the one who becomes fate in fate's place –

There was only one world I could ever allow to exist.

Humans are born with the capacity to retain and the ability to perceive. But ultimately both are governed by one's perception of self – the terms of 'self' compared to 'others'. That fundamentality all on its own is what creates 'individuality.' Oneself in the face of others gives them identity, as one becomes oneself as a result of others.

Man in the face of himself is all that should truly matter. But as man is man that will never be the case – there will always be conflict. There would always be the One True Primal Force to conceal the solution one, ultimate _why _that man strives for and fails to ascertain time and time again, represented by every conflict this world has ever faced since its inception.

It all stems back to my childhood. I was shunned for my intelligence. I was berated for incompetence because I did not want to follow the pattern and wanted to deviate. To give myself some individuality. In the face of the 'other man' my way of being was simply unacceptable. The way I thought was considered inadequate, even though it was just as valid as any other individual's way of thinking.

For as long as I could remember I despised the notion of education. When learning exceeds the simplest forms of communication and perhaps the most basic of mathematics, all that remains is subjectivity. From literature to history, all the information that the mind absorbs amounts to nothing more than the thoughts and ideals of other people.

These ideas, more often than not, are pointless tangents from which a closed minded individual is born. By seeing things one way nothing is achieved. That was why I struggled in school – that was why I never cared enough about things that were projected to me. That was why I only cared about what I saw and heard with my own two eyes.

But even at that communication is not linear. Mathematics are by no means finite either. The world 'hello' might not necessarily be a greeting to all people that walk this earth. One and one might not necessarily give you two if you perceive numbers in a different base. What one knows as their most fundamental norm is what is dictated to them, usually from the moment one is born.

Is one language superior to another? No. Is one base of mathematics necessarily easier to manage than another? No.

There is no one definitive idea, superior to any other idea.

Instead, all ideas and all concepts are equally inferior.

You may consider this a contradiction. If all ideas are equally inferior, then is your own idea of individuality an inferior idea as well?

But this is not the case – the idea of the individual is by no means a creation of man. If the individual were not a facet of the universe's design, all creation would simply be one massive entity. One entity that had no reason to be.

Individuality exists to present purpose to the universe itself. And from the perspective of man, that individuality is granted to them in order to drive purpose.

Saturn Anne – Ivan Furude, rather, was the one who taught me this. Time and time again you hear of scientists whose dreams were shattered when the world began to take advantage of their genius. When for the sake of a useless whole the individual was cast aside. Whether it be as it was for his country where genius was beaten into the dirt by the same nuclear arms that have never even seen the light of day since their inception or as it is for those that have the knowledge to put an end to human weaknesses such as disease but are suppressed by economical greed, the effect is the same.

Humans have potential. Humans have knowledge. Humans are capable of great things. And I, a human, have almost attained the power to rewrite the very fabric of the world itself.

Humans have great purpose. But that purpose has long since perished in the fires that man itself ignited. That was how he had put it.

But how does one reignite the purpose in humanity?

By simply taking humanity and redefining it. To remove the idea of man in the face of another man. To take the defining characteristics of an individual and eliminating all else.

You may consider yet another contradiction. Individuality, from a human standpoint, is in of itself a deviation from a norm. Without deviation you cannot have an individual.

In human terms perhaps – because the individual may lack the ability to create. The ability to formulate conscious thought or put their thought into action without relying on the power of another man.

But my new world will not be a world of man.

I would create a world where man did not exist. Where instead a better, more intelligent creature held down by no restrictions.

As it is now, man and demon are very much alike. Both forms of life are governed so similarly they might as well be the same thing.

But the world I will create will not be a world of man in terms of demon – it will be a world of man in terms of God. Where the mind is the sole super power. Where there are no countries or borders or even communities or families. Where reality itself is nothing more than a canvas for the mind to influence.

The moment you conform you are lost. The moment you confide in another you are forever damned to the inevitability that fate represents. The moment you succumb to the laws of nature you are nothing more than another animal.

A world of infinite solitude – a world of _Musubi_ is the only world that should exist. For it is only through solitude that life has true purpose.

This is the best world for all of us. But Mion and Rika hold this dying world too close to their hearts. Mion wishes to fade away into the bliss and succumb to her nature for all eternity, which is why she is resisting so desperately right now.

Rika, on the other hand, is just as valid a replacement for the One True Primal Force, but she wishes for something that is simply impossible.

I could not tell her the truth because if she knew what either one of us would end up being in the end she would do everything in her power to stop me. I simply couldn't have that.

But now, as her beliefs had become significantly more resolute it would seem as though I'd have to intervene with her plans anyway.

She would try to recreate our current world. She would try to build a reality for man to thrive in.

I simply couldn't allow that.

What lengths would I be willing to go to in order to stop her?

Her eyes widen momentarily. "…You _would _kill her, wouldn't you?"

I have no response. Simply admitting to it was hard enough on its own.

Her mouth twists into a freakish smile as she starts laughing hysterically. "You're just unbelievable, Kei-chan. The girl loves you, she's willing to die for you, and all you can think about is getting what you want…?" Her body begins to shake uncontrollably as she holds her head steady with her free hand, laughing away all the while. "You're really something else… You've always been something else, but _this_…!"

By the time she moves her hand away she's glaring at me with perhaps even more intensity than she had earlier. "This is simply unforgivable. You've never deserved to die as much as you do right now."

"If you think you've got it in you, go right ahead."

She sighs and shakes her head. "You act as though there's a single shred of mercy left in me."

"You're not a killer. I know you're not a killer."

"You've no right to say something like that so certainly." She raises the katana ever so slightly before plunging it downward – but at that point the dagger in my shoe has already extended all the way and so I'm able to slide myself along the floor and relatively out of harm's way while at the same time slicing her leg. I quickly regain my footing and move forward – the best way to handle this would be hand to hand.

Mion almost anticipates this – she turns to swing her sword, knowing exactly where I would be, but she was unprepared for my charge forward. She's caught off guard as I block the blade with my hidden iron padding and move in, managing to grab her by the forearm.

At that point it was all over. I had the upper hand here, and all I had to do was pull her into the stranglehold and snap her neck. Of course if I'd done that this would all have amounted to nothing. Instead I firmly grab the back of her neck and force her downward, slamming her face first into the marble floor.

"If you were really a cold hearted killer you would've seen that coming."

"You're a bastard… There's no truth in anything you're saying."

"You really want me to prove it to you? Do you really have so little faith in yourself?"

"You talk about faith like it's something that exists. You can't have faith in anything or anyone because there's not a single thing in the world you can truly _know_ Not even yourself. You can probably agree with that, can't you?"

She stands and turns towards me. The look in her eyes is ghastly.

In fact –

She is trapped – her freedom cast aside for this opportunity to destroy the focus of her intense sorrow. No matter what reason she says she's doing this for the truth is clear to me – she wants to kill me because without me she could finally move on from this world that will soon perish without fear.

She wants to believe that she's a ruthless killer. She wants to become something that isn't so she can justify her means of escape.

It is because of this very thing – this outcome, this result of an unacceptable and outright unfair struggle, that _Musubi_ must exist.

She wants to be free. She wants to depend on herself. But because of the way the world is she can't. She's bound to her feelings like a bird in a cage.

For all intents and purposes, she's now no different from Bernkastel.

And she was going to deny herself if this went on for much longer.

I turn towards Battler. "Make this official."

I figured he'd be delighted to hear my say that – but for some reason his expression was as stoic as it had been the entire time.

"Very well." He speaks. Behind him a massive chair, very much like a throne, rises out of the floor. He takes a seat atop it as it continues to climb higher and higher before coming to an abrupt stop several feet in the air above us. He claps his hands, and as he does the entire area around us changes – the floating stones crumble to ashes and walls begin to rise out of the floor –

The entirety of this previously empty place was shifted in a matter of moments. The air is filled with a dense, purple fog, obscuring Battler's form above. Church bells begin to ring with a low, depressing tone and small, crystalline shapes begin to light the space around us like fireflies. Before we knew it we were surrounded by what seemed to be the interior of a chapel – the only thing that really stood out was the gold altar at the far end, set in front of Battler's massive throne.

Suddenly we hear a low rumble – it only takes me a matter of moments to realize that it was the sound of voices. It was as though we were standing in the middle of a bustling street – the quiet, more tame tone of voice one would expect of people in a building of holy significance was absent in its entirety. The sound comes from above – in the rafters above were what seemed to be a large mass of shadows, all with glowing, red eyes, looking down on us.

Battler claps his hands a single time – the crowd of shadows falls silent instantly.

"For us, today is a day of great achievement. For not in twenty thousand years has the Witch's Court found grounds to convene. But _today_! Today, the condemned and accused will once again clash in a grand spectacle worthy of our eyes and our eyes alone!"

The crowd roars in delight.

"Mion Sonozaki! You have been accused of murder, sabotage and assault across countless fragments and for conspiring with the One True Primal Force in an attempt to end all reality as we know it! How does your defense plead?"

"Guilty." She speaks without hesitation.

"That's a load of shit. Objection." I call out. "She's innocent. No two ways about it."

The crowd seems to only get more and more excited as this went along.

Battler's voice sounds just as excited, but his face still seemed more neutral than anything else. "Oh ho…! So it seems The defense is at odds with itself this time. What a show this'll be!" The crowd continues to go wild as Battler continues his speech. "Very well then – Mion Sonozaki, I sentence you to a trial by combat. Your opponent shall be Keiichi Maebara, the End Dreamer."

"Twenty thousand years? Now you're just showing off." I find the opportunity to speak my mind.

It is Mion who responds instead of Battler. "Maybe _you're _the one who's lost track of time. You're definitely old enough for that."

"We're beyond our usual banter, I'm afraid." I ready my knife again – Mion seems about as resolute as she'd seemed before, although it would seem she was hoping for a 'usual' response from me. She has no more words to share until our fight formally commences.

"Let the battle begin!" Battler calls out one final time and our match begins.

"Let's start with your girlfriend's dream."

"That's an easy one. _You can't be the killer simply because you are killed before everyone is dead. I was the one who drew the machete and killed Ivan. You aren't able to kill him under any circumstances, so therefore you can't be the killer!" _As I swing my knife to parry Mion's first swing, the air I'd cut through glows – blue streaks follow the path of every swing I make.

"Like hell that's true. _Your perspective is the only perspective given. Your perspective is flawed, and why is this…?" _Mion's katana makes very similar streaks in its wake as well. She then turns towards Battler. "I'd like a little red here to help me out, you know."

Battler replies with a rather smug grin. "Relying on me already, huh? You're calling this a little too soon, methinks, but I suppose since it's you I'll let it slide… **Keiichi Maebara is not the detective. This is absolute fact, and applies to all fragments, all tales, and otherwise relevant and irrelevant dimensions of being. **That should about cover it."

Mion continues her attack. "_You are not the detective, therefore your perspective cannot be treated as gospel. It's very possible that I was killed in the bout that followed, but ultimately that doesn't prevent me from being the killer."_

"Then what about my death, as well as Rika's? _You can't prove that you're the culprit if you can't explain how you killed the two of us after you were confirmed dead!"_

"I don't have to! _You and Rika are guaranteed to die at the end of the story anyway! Your deaths were not necessarily murders – they could be virtually anything! _Tell 'em, Battler."

The man in question shrugs his shoulders. "She's got a point. **While the culprit is guaranteed to be the killer in every murder, if one is not murdered but still considered dead, that death does not have to be a murder. This is not to say that the death **_**is**__**not **_**a murder, however, but that the death **_**does not have to be **_**a murder.**"

"That's a load of shit! That outright contradicts the rule about **no death being accidental!**" There was probably even a rule that translated to 'every death is a murder' on top of that. I manage to once again catch Mion off guard – she staggers slightly, before blocking my impending follow-up strike with as much power as she could muster.

At this point the air around us was filled with the tinge of the blue streaks – their glow began to cut through the purple fog, making it much easier for the two of us to see.

Perhaps it meant I was getting closer to the truth – maybe it was supposed to be akin to the proverbial fog lifting from my eyes.

"He's got a point, Mion." Battler grins again. "Care to tell him why it doesn't matter?"

"Easy enough – you didn't even specify what you meant by 'death' – it's a wonder Kei-chan fucked this up. _The two deaths in question are by no means accidental. Your deaths are guaranteed – whether or not your death was a murder does not matter, for your death cannot be accidental in any way!" _

"**Every death is a murder** – wasn't that already established?! And **every murder is carried out by the culprit! **I don't see how you can resolve this so easily!"

"Even then it doesn't matter – _for all intents and purposes your deaths could fall under the inevitability rule! _**At the end of all tales, every resident of Hinamizawa is dead! Miyo Takano kills everyone that survives the murders!**"

"And how do you plan to prove that they were? **I'm not the detective. **So unless Rika _is, _you can't even verify that we ran through the forest at all!"

"I'm going to stop you right there, Keiichi." Battler suddenly speaks up. "**The detective's perspective is valid. You and Rika went into the forest before you died. Even more importantly you were in the forest **_**when **_**you died.**"

"But she just insinuated that my perspective was the only –" I come to a very swift realization. She had implied no detective's perspective had been given during her death and Ivan's death by proxy, but what seemed to be going on here was that the detective _was _present for my death and Rika's death…!

But Rika isn't the detective… I know that already! Even if she was the assistant, or hell, even if _I _was the assistant I still couldn't prove a damn thing because it's never suggested that the assistant has a rock solid perspective. And I knew that the moment I tried to defend myself with that Battler would shoot it down without hesitation.

Then who the fuck's the detective?! I can't prove _anything_ like this!

But Mion keeps going. _"_ That's not going to cut it for either of us, though – _I advocate the Devil's Proof! Even though there is insufficient information given for my claim, at the same time there is no way for you to prove that your deaths were not part of the only exception to the death and murder rules you've stated!"_

I had to switch gears. This was getting me nowhere. I couldn't call out the violation of the **every resident of Hinamizawa is dead **rule that was very recently presented to us because it simply wouldn't work out. Satoko can definitely be considered dead considering how she emerges from the village as an entirely different person. Mion could likely make the same call herself and lock me into another Devil's Proof if she takes the whole 'Jack the Ripper' bit to some extremes.

I had to find something that she couldn't talk her way around. There had to be one thing – one thing for certain. Something that I could argue that she would be unable to dispute.

But first we had to deconstruct this first set of murders. Perhaps there was concrete evidence that made Mion a victim rather than the killer.

"Then let's focus on something we _do _know happened for certain. Explain to me how you poisoned Satoko! _It's impossible for you to reach her room in any way. You couldn't have opened your door, using the windows wouldn't have given you enough time – there's simply no way!" _I already knew that there was a discrepancy worthy of a Devil's Proof hidden in this scenario, but fortunately enough she hadn't spotted it yet.

"_There is no way for you to know if I was ever in my room to begin with! There is no proof that I had to follow the rules of that incident if –"  
_

She'd said it. Now I finally had my chance. "Bullshit. _You had to follow the rules no matter what. You must have either been off the premises of the shrine or in a room. You were in a room as you appeared in the very next scene –"_

"I already know what Mion's response is going to be. 'there's no detective in that scene – **which there isn't, by the way **– so there's no way to prove anything that happened there'. **I guarantee that the perspective of that entire portion of the mystery was completely accurate. **I've got to give him a fighting chance, at least."

"Not that it matters –"

"Oh, but it does. The fact that you're in that very next scene means you must have been in a room when Satoko woke up." We clash blades again, blue sparks being produced from the sheer force of our collision.

"Then _my door was never locked and I walked in after-"_

"**When Satoko fell asleep all doors were locked. **Furthermore **If the culprit were not 'safely hidden away' at that point she would have seen them no matter what. **_It's literally impossible for you to hop into a room because all the rooms are already locked! If you were outside your room when all the doors were locked you would have been seen!_"

She snarls. "So you're still trying to deny it – fine then, I'll get straight to the point…!" She once again swings at me, the blue streaks of her katana as crisp as they'd been the entire time. "_The window at the end of the hallway on the second floor where we kissed – that window is the solution to this dilemma! There are no specifications about that window! The time to get to Satoko's room from that window could have been anywhere from one minute to one second!" _My heart sinks the moment she says that –

"Except there are." Battler speaks up again. "**That window exists and is a definitive part of the crime scene and can be used by all parties. **Sorry Keiichi, I'd have shot down your Devil's Proof anyway." But he wouldn't shoot down hers. "Oh, and in case you still want to convince her with that first tale, I might as well go ahead and say **only the culprit left their room prior to Satoko's death. No one else was trying to scale the building at that time.**"

So much for that. I back away and ready my knife again – all in all Satoko's story wouldn't help either of us all that much – the perspective was odd enough as it was, and furthermore if Satoko really was supposed to be the detective then even less sense was made given how she was long dead before that supposed detective perspective portion near the end of the first tale occurred.

Mion had clearly killed people in that story. But even then there was so little we could take for granted – only the events leading up to that story really mattered in the end. The mystery in of itself was perhaps the most open ended of them all – just about anyone could have done the killing in the underground tunnel. But not Mion. And based on what?

Based on the story that came before it.

"Then let's get a move on…! _Second tale – it's impossible for anyone but me to kill Satoko! My perspective as the culprit does not have to be accurate! All that had to have happened was for Satoko to be killed without any sound being made!"_

When our blades collide again I can almost feel it from her – she really expected me to have nothing prepared for that. "You've got to do better than that. **The door wasn't opened at all until you opened it yourself after Satoko had died.**"

She doesn't relent for a moment. "_Then I was somewhere else entirely. I didn't have to have been talking to Satoko in the boiler room during that sequence!"_

"But there are **no entrances into the Boiler Room aside from the two doors. There's no way you could have entered any way, not even through that air vent!**"

"_Then I never entered the room through the air vent! I killed Satoko without ever entering the room from the air vent!"_

I finally find the strength to overpower her. "No good. **You stood guard at the main entrance when Satoko went in. No one entered through either of the main entrances after she went in. You were outside the Boiler Room when Satoko entered." **The moment I said that it occurred to me –

Mion moves away slightly before lunging at me again – this time she manages to send me staggering as the force of her blow takes its toll –

"The one thing you've forgotten about is the _time frame! There's no real perception of how much time passed between me 'standing guard' and the time that I opened the door!" _

I move away again, this time trying to weigh my options –

We were pretty much down to the wire here. After this Mion witnessed Nebiros in Satoshi's chamber. But… Right before that…

"Looks like we've come to _that _part of the story, haven't we?"

"So… You were planning this all along, weren't you? You wanted to get me with _this _mystery, didn't you?"

"Of course I did, Kei-chan. What better way to put you out of your misery is there?"

"Don't do this." I warn her, perhaps for the first time with as much seriousness as I was warning her with right now.

"It's too late, Kei-chan. I'm a monster – or rather _I'm a demon… _No, that's not appropriate. Not for this."

She moves away and grips the hilt of her katana with both hands – and she charges forward.

Do I really have a defense for this?

Do I really have what it takes to pass judgment on _this?_

…No, I don't.

Even though I'm the one who wants to remake the world, I can't…

She thrusts her blade forward with as much force and speed behind her as she could muster.

The katana pierces the wind with a sharp, red haze. It shatters through my feeble knife in its entirety, shattering both blade and hilt into a thousand pieces with its sheer force before running my stomach straight through, exiting through my back.

My blood sprays ,from both the wound and my mouth. The crowd of demonic shadows becomes delirious. My vision begins to swim – I'm going to die of blood loss. How ironic.

"**Blood red truth – I am a 'demon'. I am Jack the Ripper, a mass murderer. I'm a murderer, I'm a killer, and I'm the killer you've been searching for. I'm the reason for everything. You all die because of me.**"

The room falls silent. Battler says absolutely nothing –

I see the moment of my own death –

After all, I'm the End Dreamer. It's what I do.

But –

At the same time –

I see a possibility beyond that –

I firmly grab the blade of Mion's katana, or at least what portion of it wasn't speared through my body.

My entire body is shaky, but I manage to raise my head and look her in the eyes –

"**No, you're not.**"

Silence.

There's nothing but silence.

Mion's eyes – they've certainly come back to life.

I manage to ram the hilt of the blade through _her _stomach with strength I didn't know I still had –

I push myself off of the blade and back away, putting some distance between myself and the completely stunned Mion.

I fall to my knees. I could at least manage this for a little longer, but before too long…

"The defense rests." I call out with a sigh. I'm more focused on preventing any more blood loss, but it wasn't as though I was having any luck in that department.

The silence continues, but eventually Battler speaks. "I hereby find the defendant, Mion Sonozaki, innocent of all charges."

The moment he says that she lets out a sharp cry. She throws her head back and with both hands on the blade of the katana she forcefully pulls the blade out of her backward, the hilt tearing more of her insides in the process.

She faces me again – her eyes aren't empty anymore. Instead they're filled with more malice than there had been in even Nebiros' eyes.

She charges. It's supposed to be over but even then she won't give up.

She wants to be the One True Culprit. She wants to be the killer so badly that she will no longer listen to reason. She can't stand any more of this – she wants a reason to die. A reason to burn in hell. A reason to have to abandon the things she holds as close to her heart as possible.

I'd do it, then.

I'd put her out of her misery.

I was the only one who ever should –

She draws closer – I have one final trick up my sleeve.

I don't make any sudden moves. I remain as still as I could despite how I was still bleeding out.

My hand slides into my coat –

And by the time my handgun emerges from within she's already reasoned everything out –

Instead of going for yet another plunge she instead cuts her movement off and swings her blade downward –

I shoot, the bullet firmly lodging itself in her right shoulder. But that doesn't stop her from taking off my hand in its entirety with the sharp edge of the katana.

But that was the trick, you see –

"You may be a 'demon', but… The truth you seek so desperately… It's so simple." I speak, barely above a whisper.

I move my other hand from my chest – my blood flows freely from my open wound as I latch onto Mion's throat.

"**Mion Sonozaki… does not exist.**"

Her eyes widen, although only slightly –

And my hand tightens around her throat –

"I've been stabbed, and cut, and burned, I've lost fingernails and toes and I've fallen off of buildings but…" Her voice cracks. "Nothing's ever run deeper than your words, Keiichi…!"

And her neck explodes from the inside, creating a massive eruption with the force of a bomb –

And the truth –

The truth flows from her veins –

* * *

_Hinamizawa  
__The One True Detective_

"Another nightmare?"

She looks up at me with those eyes – those vulnerable, scared eyes. There was no larger sign that my sister was having a nightmare than the look on her face when I woke her up. It was eleven in the morning, long after she'd normally been up and doing whatever it was that she did with herself in the morning before having another go at the Kei-chan game. Today she was simply about as out of it as could be – although I was the only one who seemed to notice these days.

…Come to think of it, maybe I was the only one who _ever _noticed when my sister was acting strange. But I suppose if she's the one who's supposed to be the heir to the Sonozaki family I, her secretly older sister, had to be the one to keep her in shape.

She nods her head somewhat reluctantly. For the last several night she's been having dreams of that day two years ago. The more she would dwell on it the more she'd get distressed and the more time I'd have to spend trying to console her.

She's definitely been through a lot. More than I'd ever be willing to put myself through. She was strong, but at the same time she had a weakness so massive she needed nothing sort of the Secret Service to protect her.

But all she had was me. And as long as she had me she'd always be safe – she'd never have to fear that she'd be taken advantage of. That she'd be cast aside like some used tool, or milked for all that she was good for. As long as I protected her, she'd be able to wake up every morning and not have any worries. She should be allowed to live a carefree life. She deserves it more than anyone else. She should be allowed to live the way she wants to, no matter what the consequences are. She should be able to have what she wants no matter how expensive – and she should be able to take the love I've given her and love another the same way as I have.

She was so vulnerable now. Because it was becoming more and more apparent to her that as time went on and as the list of 'things we've done in the past' gets longer and longer that there would eventually be a breaking point. I swore on my life that I'd protect her from all of that – I swore I'd never let any harm come to her. That she was my little sister and that no matter how trying things became I'd protect her. I'd save her. I'd come to her side in a moment's notice no matter the circumstances.

But…

At the same time I knew – I knew I wasn't strong enough.

I knew I didn't have what it took to protect her.

I knew I didn't have what it took to come to her side in a moment's notice.

It all came to a head –

When Keiichi came into her life and she found him to be more than anything she could've imagined.

He had nothing to do with our village.

He wasn't held down by the shadow of his past.

He was free. He was free and free to think for himself. He was free to be who he wanted to be.

She envied him greatly – and he could tell the moment they met. He could see the bars of her cage and knew how to break the lock. Every moment they spent was a moment outside of that cage.

He was perfect – she told me he was like Satoshi… Just like Satoshi.

She was right, at least to a certain extent.

She knew that everything she'd been fearing would soon become a reality. But even so she loved him desperately.

Everything gradually got worse. Our family very quickly was in danger of falling apart from the ground up.

We had no idea what to do. The lengths I'd gone to keep my sister safe would all amount to nothing if our family fell apart. I was at the point where I was going to crack from the pressure.

I was her older sister, and I'd said I would always protect her.

But she said she'd do what she did two years ago.

She said she'd protect me again.

She'd protect us all, or die trying.

I tried to stop her, I really did.

But she wouldn't listen.

She wasn't like me –

She loved everyone. She loved everyone that cared for her, even if that care was artificial.

She killed so many people for the sake of our family. Because our corrupt relatives told her to. And she would do it again without reserve.

But now it was like this – her love for Kei-chan clashed with her love for her family.

She was the one cornered.

She'd given up so much.

She'd done such terrible things.

No one cared. No one bat an eyelash.

There was only me.

And I wasn't good enough.

I was infuriated.

My family –

My family was going to take my sister away from me.

They'd taken Satoshi away from me once before.

But my sister…?

They want my sister, too…?

Is there…

Was there any way out?

…Ah, perhaps there _was _a way out.

It was wrong.

It was wrong in every way.

But…

I simply couldn't…

It was impossible for both of us to have what we wanted.

It was impossible for me to have Satoshi.

And if our family had any say in the matter it was impossible for Mion to have Keiichi.

Even when all we wanted was to be by each others' sides –

Even that was too much.

Because we were both different people.

Even now as I sit by her side and gently console her, the fact of the matter is that this is all just really bad satire.

In reality –

She was the one protecting me.

She was always the one protecting me.

She was always the one who put herself on the line for my sake.

She was the one who loved me.

I had sworn I'd protect her. I'd sworn I'd let her live the way she wanted to because she deserved it.

But in the end _I _was the one living a carefree life._ I_ was the one who was being protected.

I needed her.

But she needed me.

Why was that?

The more I thought about it, the more I'd always drift away from the answer.

…

The answer isn't simple. In fact, it's so far from it you'd probably have to be a psychologist to make any real sense of it.

But…

One side will always need the other.

One side will always crave the other.

Because no matter how similar both sides are, neither one is truly identical.

Identity is what makes us human.

But being human…

Being human is something I'd never have wanted.

But I was never given a choice.

That's why…

That's why I love my sister.

That's why I need her to protect me.

Because humanity is a disgusting thing.

Because humans are disgusting.

Because humans hate and hate and can never bring themselves to love.

That was why –

I could not love without being human.

I could not be an individual without the ability to love.

And so –

For the sake of love, for the sake of myself –

That 'Shion' is 'Shion' and 'Mion' is 'Mion'.

But 'Shion' and 'Mion' are both human.

They can both love and hate.

Therefore they both love and hate each other.

Mion is an ideal version of myself. She's who I should be, but who I will never be.

Shion is the other side, who Mion protects with her very existence. She is who I have become, and who Mion desperately wants to be, but will never be.

And Jack – Jack is what exists because we're sisters. Because there is a Sonozaki Shion and a Sonozaki Mion. Because there is undying courage and insurmountable fear in the same heart.

But –

When you come down to it, when you tear away all of the outward appearances and identity –

All that's left –

That's who I really am.

That's who stole Mion's precious Keiichi.

That's who would have left their beloved sister to die if it meant she could love someone again.

That's who would be willing to kill everyone around her to preserve her 'self'.

That's who would abandon justice and truth for another day of endless bliss.

That's who lacks the power to live her life the way she wants.

That's who lacks the power to protect the people around her.

That's who damned both family and pride and clung only to want and desire.

Someone who hates her humanity, but clings to it as her last hope –

Someone who has no right to exist –

The real Mion Sonozaki –

The Mion Sonozaki I have long since discarded –

Mu, the Witch of Nothing. Who belongs to no one.

That's who I am.

I've experienced every human emotion.

Love is the most transparent.

Love is the most artificial.

Love is the weakest of all emotion.

But –

Love is the one thing I cannot live without –

Love is the one thing I would die for.

The Sonozaki family is incapable of love. The demon Mao Sonozaki, who has dwelled within me for as long as I can remember, stand as testament to that.

Love is what I will kill for.

Love is why, even though I sit at my sister's side, gently consoling her, loving her like a sister should –

Love is why I will always abandon her.

Love is why I will never truly love her.

Love is why –

Love is why I will never love.

Ever…

But that's why –

That's why I have to know _why_.

That's why I need to find the answer –

Why is there evil?

Why is there chaos? Why is there discord?

Only me –

Only someone who truly belongs to no one can find the answer.

Because I am me, in the eyes of myself alone.

The world may try to erase me and all that I am.

But I can't let it –

Because Keiichi will always be there –

He'll always be there to save me.

To give 'me' value as 'me'.

And even if only for him –

Even if I can't truly love him –

I have to know.

Mion sees Keiichi as perfection.

Shion sees Keiichi as perfection.

I see Keiichi as perfection.

He can't be described in terms of anyone else.

I have to know why he is who he is –

And why I am simply so different.

That's why I'll relive this hell as many times as I must –

Because if I cannot come to learn why –

Then there was never any sense in 'me' to begin with.

* * *

A full five minutes passes before the dust begins to clear. What was the most apparent was that chapel was no more. The charred remains were scattered everywhere and whatever had been left of Mion was buried under the bulk of it. Despite where it had been Battler's throne remains relatively undeterred, although perhaps now leaning somewhat to the side. I've somehow managed to survive the explosion completely unscathed save for the already gaping wound in my back and my now missing hand.

I hadn't even heard the crowd scream.

I hadn't heard Mion scream either.

But perhaps she never even had the chance to.

Or perhaps –

Because there was no Mion Sonozaki to scream in the first place.

It was over –

I finally fall backward, my exhaustion catching up with me.

Was this how it had to end?

Perhaps it was. Perhaps this was the only fate that Mion was willing to accept. Perhaps her only way out was to have it all end like that.

In the moments that follow that moment, I keep thinking the same thing over and over again.

_It shouldn't have been me._

_I'm the last person in the world that should've done that to her. _

_Anyone else – anyone else would've been better._

_From me –_

_No, it was too much._

Eventually Battler breaks the silence.

"To deprive her of even her right to be… But more importantly, for her to _allow you_ to deprive her of her right to be…" He stands and slowly floats down from the throne towards me. "The extent to which she loved you – I don't even think I could ever really come to understand it myself."

"Then you have to understand why it had to come to this…"

"…I have a question for you."

"Go right ahead…"

"The Sonozaki family has been denied love for centuries, even if they were the ultimate cause themselves… With so much hate for the people she was born to lead, it only makes sense that 'she'd' have no way out but to battle her isolation in such a way... But even if the one was created to fight the isolation for the other, was it right to favor the hopes and dreams of one half over the other?"

"I already tried to satisfy them both. It's simply impossible. Even if things were different… Even if they weren't both facets of the same person – Mion and Shion have no future. They never will."

"…and that was the only reason…?"

"…The only reason."

He then turns away. "…At this point it's nothing worth crying over. Neither one of them will have to suffer for much longer anyway… The girl – she's come to the answer. She knows everything… Well, about as much as the mystery laid before her would be able to tell her… She's resolved my Blood Red Truth as you have – she can likely use the Red of her own accord as well. The Crucible is just beyond here – you will only have to keep walking forward. But don't get your hopes up – the world you seek is almost out of your grasp forever."

And he begins to walk off. "Believe me, Keiichi. Your plight almost brings me to tears. But this is neither the time, nor the place for emotion to cloud our judgment. Astaroth freed you from my Golden Land because he realized that… As it is now, I'm sure you've already realized what lies in the near future. But never forget that the new world will only be as potent as the man who creates it."

"I know. I've always known…"

With that Battler fades into the distance – and my vision becomes cloudy and unfocused.

But I would not die.

I couldn't die – not yet.

Not until Rika made it here.

Not until I had told her everything.

* * *

_5 Days Remain (June 25__th__, 1983)  
__Nebiros, the Frozen Flame_

The bowels of the clinic were about as horrifying as my confinement in that cellar had been.

Bodies – bodies everywhere, strewn about the floor and walls, maimed every which way imaginable. All of them wore the strange public service uniform that several of the men that had captured me had been wearing. Whoever had killed them – well, there had to have been more than one person involved if this many people had been killed, right?

I make my way up the levels, stairwell after stairwell, passing more and more bodies until I finally reach the main floor –

And sitting on a revolving chair with perhaps the most stunned expression on his face that I'd ever seen was Irie Kyosuke.

His face is splashed with blood – but it was doubtful that he was the one who'd killed all of these people. His eyes are mostly unfocused, but they seem to react to my appearance. He had to at least have known that I was there, but he was clearly staring straight forward for the most part.

"…You're going to leave me too, eh?" He eventually murmurs. "This isn't over… I swear this isn't the end of my ambition… But for now…"

"What happened here?"

"You made it all possible… Without you we never would've achieved this level of perfection… Your interaction with my daughter almost made me believe that you were just an abnormal human, but…"

"Your daughter…? You mean Yoko?"

"If you want to act as though she needs a name, given the way she is, then sure."

I put aside the growing desire to beat him and press him for more answers. "What happened here? What am I responsible for?"

"We took you… And we put a part of you inside Rena-chan… The result was more than I ever could've hoped for… I started giving Keiichi-kun the pills and he reacted the same… It was all so perfect…"

"You're not making any sense."

"Keiichi-kun can see the future, Satoshi-kun became superhuman, Mion-san lost control of her thirds… It was all so amazing…!"

I punch him squarely in the face. "What happened here? If you make me ask one more time I'll end your appalling existence here and now!"

"Rena-chan… And Rena-chan… She killed everyone." He starts laughing hysterically. "And no one could stop her! She's just so set in her ways… And as long as Miyo-tan and Nomura-hime are both alive, everything'll still go as planned…!"

"Where is Rena now?"

"In the forest? Who knows…? I don't even care anymore, Saya… You're just wasting your time. For someone like you, how can someone like that be worth anything?"

"At one time I questioned that myself… Because people like you once ruled the world."

He smiles rather loosely. "People like me rule the world even now. People like me will always rule the world. That's why we're people."

I don't reply to him – I had an idea of where Rena might have gone, and I head off without a moment to spare.

As I follow the trail out of the village a trail of blood becomes rather prominent. I sprint as fast as I can and manage to follow the path without any real issue.

Eventually the trail comes to a rather abrupt stop near a large, metal shack that seems rather out of place in general –

And there she is, drenched in blood, almost from head to toe, an equally as bloody machete in one of her hands.

I could tell just from the dullness of the blade.

She's killed so many already.

But I knew –

I knew she still couldn't bring herself to kill the people close to her.

She turns to face me – the killer intent is clearly there. Her eyes are completely absorbed in it – but the moment she sees my face she smiles warmly.

"You made it out… Thank goodness."

It then makes sense – she'd killed all of those people to escape the confines of the clinic. And she'd probably killed even more to ensure my escape.

"Rena…" I speak, somewhat out of breath from that sprint. "…It's over now."

She shakes her head. "…It's only beginning. I have to keep killing… It's the only way."

"But you have to understand by now that there's no way this will ever –"

"If I can protect one person… That's good enough for me."

"…Rena, you don't have to do this-"

"This is what I'm meant to do."

"That's a load of crap! Just tell me – tell me what it is you want! Tell me your request – I'll do it, no matter what it is!"

She drops the machete.

In a matter of moments she embraces me.

"You've already done what I wanted you to do."

"What…?"

"I wanted someone to understand me. Someone to stand as testament to the sacrifice I'm going to make."

"So… You always were…"

"I was going to go through with it no matter what. But now it's all out of control – but as long as I can save _someone_, it'll all be worth it." She tightens the embrace. "If I didn't have you – there would be no point to any of it. No one would know what I gave up everything for. No one would care… Without you, I'd have no meaning. That's why I freed you. So you could see the world for what it was, and to see what I was willing to do to keep it from hurting more people."

"But this isn't…"

"It's all contradictory. It's always going to be contradictory. Because you can't have what you want without sacrificing something far greater. But there's a way out of it – make the right sacrifices. Make the right decisions."

"And… What _are _the right decisions?"

"The choices that protect the most people. The choices that keep people from harm. Even if in the end you have to harm people you care about."

"It shouldn't be that way…!"

"But that's how it is. That's how it's always going to be. Everyone can't be like you, or me, or Keiichi-kun or Mii-chan – everyone's different. That's why things are the way they are. No matter how much I wish it would all just end, it never will. No matter where I go, no matter who I meet, the pain just follows me. But I won't let anyone suffer from the same pain that I've suffered. Even if I have to kill them in the process."

"But there has to be another way…"

"I don't know if there is… In fact, I've come to believe that death is the only escape people have. But…"

She releases me –

I look up. Her eyes are stricken with tears –

She grabs a hold of me –

I hear a door open –

She throws me into the shed and onto the cold, metal floor.

I look up – she's standing there in the doorway.

"Rena…! Wait!"

I scramble to my feet and move forward, but in that moment –

"You're a miracle, Saya. You're something that we need more than anything else, but something we don't deserve. The world isn't ready for you… I don't think the world will ever be ready for you…" I stop dead in my tracks. She begins to close the door.

"But if that time comes and the world can accept you with open arms, I pray you'll find the answer. For all of us living right now – I pray that you can find it. The end of pain. The end of suffering. If there's anyone who can, I know it's you."

And with that the door slams shut and her face fades from view – her sad smile has finally vanished, but it will be burned into my memory for all eternity.

In the end, she was always right.

There was never a solution.

Humanity is simply too cruel.

Too cruel to allow a girl as innocent and sweet as Rena to live the way she wanted to.

…

…So do you understand now?

Yoko proved to me that there were people in the world that truly could matter. That could bring merit and value to humanity.

She is young, much younger than Rena – but in the end her fate is already inevitable. She will suffer the same way .

I loved Yoko as a sister. In the future I'd come to love her that much more.

But Rena – I loved Rena the way a man would love a woman.

For Rena and Rena alone –

That's why my world of _Null_ – my world of nothing – has to prevail.

There is no solution.

There is no redemption, either.

I will punish all of existence for the suffering she went through.

For Rena I will end everything, even myself if need be.

…You've already killed her with your own two hands.

…I beg you.

Don't defile what's left of Rena's dream.

Turn back.

Give up.

Let this world die.

Let Rena have the peace she's wanted for so very long.

…Or continue this path of insolence and face me.

And if so then our fight –

Will be to the death.

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

And so ends the fourth arc.

I know I've probably said this about several things so far – but this arc was probably the hardest thing to actually write down. Particularly this final episode.

…Actually, this episode in of itself (and perhaps a portion of the last, I won't say which part since I've sworn off of explaining episode 2) is the main reason why I needed my readers' mindsets (or mindset, as it ultimately turned out) to determine how this was going to go.

Now… Honestly I'm completely split on how this turned out.

The Higurashi fan side says this chapter sucks. Mainly because of what I did with Mion.

But the 'Cicadas is barely even Higurashi anymore' side says this is about as good as it's going to get.

But yeah, kudos to Repton for pointing out how Mion inappropriately used 'Oni-baba', Shion's nickname for Oryou in the very first arc (also in subsequent instances in the arcs that followed), because that was direct foreshadowing to this whole mess.

Ok…

So…

Where to begin?

First off, there's probably a very good question that needs answering: 'Does this break Cicadas canon because it totally does'.

It would certainly seem that way. An inherent part of the 'mystery' in _End Dreamer _was the dragon tattoo (or in this case the lack thereof) on Shion's back that proved she was not Mion –

The answer is simple. In this continuity, we have never actually _seen _the dragon tattoo. Even in Higurashi canon we never actually _see _the tattoo, we only _hear _about it. A lot. To the point where we can say that it definitely is real but… Well, you get the idea, right? Granted this is probably more a matter of the VN's art being the cartoony-massive-hands-fest that it is rather than a matter of deliberate choice, but hey, Ryukishi didn't give me any Pirate Erika art so I'm just going to casually ignore that.

'But wait,' you might be saying. 'Didn't Mion _show _Satoko the dragon tattoo in the last arc? You're contradicting yourself!'

See, this is the discrepancy I need to clear up right now. Although given the contents of this episode it makes a bit more sense – Satoko is shown the dragon tattoo to verify that it is indeed Mion. **Because that is the only way she would know otherwise. **

The tattoo is purely symbolic. Whether or not it's actually there is based on whether or not Satoko is the detective. Which she isn't.

But think it over for a little bit.

Actually, I'm going to bold the important part of that so it's a little easier on you.

Aaanyway…

This is basically how it goes now:

The demon sealed in the heiress to the Sonozaki family is Mao Sonozaki. The father, that is. The 'demon tattoo' that is used to signify the presence of the demon in the head of the family is completely absent from the mythology this time because it exists primarily as a trait to distinguish between the two twins. Removing that makes it so there's nothing else to tell them apart but their personalities. It's all symbolic and quite satirical when you tear it down, so for now just bear with it :P

So what does this arc mean for the overall story?

Well, there are tons of hints everywhere in this chapter. Some are more relevant than others. I might've given away a little _too _much by both knocking Mion out of the culprit race and at the same time verifying who the detective was, (although in the last chapter I pretty much confirmed that the detective was one of the girls and not Keiichi) but as it is an appropriate conclusion as to who the actual culprit is will be a lot easier to ascertain at this point. Not that it's obvious (believe me, the 'why' is not obvious at all, and neither is the 'how') or anything like that.

So now, about this 'Mu' character. I'm just going to give a very simple outlook on this, but we'll be seeing a whole episode of the answer arc devoted to this.

She's Shion. Simple as that. If you're an Umineko fan this whole thing will make _so _much more sense given how the multiple personalities worked in that story (and given how I directly molded this personality bit after it so to make it a little easier to comprehend).

Simply put, Mu is Mion Sonozaki, who hated the degree of expectations set out for her by the Sonozaki family. Basically she had a terrible upbringing and in order to deal with it she created a separate aspect of herself that could do everything that she couldn't. The 'Mion' we know is the result of this.

Eventually after enough tension builds up and Keiichi comes into the picture we end up with this – we end up with the two halves trying to kill each other while one tries to solve a dilemma that's been haunting her since the moment she could think for herself before it's too late. That's basically Shion's motivation as detective.

And in terms of the Mion you saw in this chapter, we have Mion in complete control of the body, completely fed up with all the struggling that she's done and wants nothing more than to kill the object of her affections.

Sound familiar?

So in short… They're both in the same body, they're both different people, they both love the same person, but in the end one isn't psychologically able to love while the other simply loves too much.

So that's about all I can say with regards to this… There's one final lettered chapter coming up fairly soon, but after that it's the end of the story or bust.

Look forward to it. If you would be so kind.


	21. H Chapter: One Last Point

_**H Chapter – One Last Point**_

_From Beyond the Looking Glass  
__Serika _

It was only a few moments after my life had seemingly expired that I found myself in a place I was all too familiar with –

It only happened once in awhile. Primarily after I experienced another rendition of the Hinamizawa Disaster, but most prominently in that dream I had. While my memory of the particular details was a bit hazy, I at least recognized this strange white void that seemed to stretch on forever. This was some place removed from everywhere I'd ever been, even during my brief venture through the Sea of Fragments. This was a place even removed from that – it only made sense that I'd be brought here on my path to the end of time.

I was once again in my enhanced body, that much I could tell from how much more accustomed I was to moving around. Dreamer was still nowhere to be seen, but I at least had to hope that he wasn't too far off.

The Crucible was near, that much I knew for certain. But while I was here I had to wonder – what happened to that man? The man with the red hair who had always been here?

His name – Battler, was it? That's what Mion had called him at least. In any event he was nowhere to be seen – neither was anything else either, at that. There was nothing but endless white in all directions –

Eventually I decide to just take my chances – I head off in a random direction with no real idea of what to look for. Instinct told me to try to find some sort of exit, but there was definitely more to this place than that. There was something here I had to find – at least that's what I'd come to assume after enough hunting for the truth.

The way things are now I likely don't have much time left. Saya was waiting for me, and if I couldn't get to her in time she would create her world of _Null_. And that was something I couldn't let happen under any circumstances.

My aimless wandering starts to get to me, although I prove to be far more resilient to my lack of progression thanks to my trek through that pitch black room. Although to some extent this entire area was no different. The only real difference was that I had no way of marking my progress.

I start running in random directions, making sure to keep going in a general 'forward' direction. My impatience was mostly fueled by the presence of my time limit, although for all I knew Saya wouldn't do a thing until I faced her head-on. Regardless, if I made no progress all would be for naught anyhow. I couldn't let an endless path deter me, although already it had done so for longer than I would have liked.

Eventually it gets to the point where I'm not sure if there was any intention in my arrival here at all – it had been apparent for quite some time, but in all reality the things I had sworn to destroy were things that were quite honestly beyond my imagination. While I've sworn to take down fate itself I had no way of really knowing if such a thing was possible to begin with – I had only sworn to do so.

The human part of me assumed that I'd just have to hit Saya until she stopped moving. But who was to say that the impending battle would be anything like that? Who was to say that we weren't already fighting? What if I had already lost and was dead? I was being toyed with by powers beyond my imagination – but all that coming to that realization did was make my desire to do something about all of this that much more intense.

I'd fight her on my own terms. I'd kill her on my own terms. I'd rewrite reality on my own terms. I won't be subject to someone else's sick and twisted game anymore. I'm going to take control of my life on a celestial level – there was no way anyone would be able to stop me at that point. And so I keep running –

For the bulk of my life, all twenty thousand years of it, I'd been subject to someone else's desires. Desires that were always misplaced or wrongfully put into action or in some instances misguided on a fundamental level. Claiming that the strong preside over the weak isn't entirely accurate, at least not from my perspective. For the people presiding over me lack the spirit and the will to even wake themselves up in the morning, let alone become a force that dictates the way people should live their lives.

Miyo Takano wanted to become a god. Misguided by the words of her equally as ignorant grandfather, she came to believe that there was merit in trying to take humanity to the next level on the evolutionary chain. Her mind was hardened at a very young age for such idiocy and no matter how bleak things got for her she never let go of that desire to transcend that human barrier.

It was because she had nothing and needed to escape. It was because she had lost everything and wanted to get back at the world. She's a killer for no other reason. Because her heart wasn't trained to give up and move on that she clung to her desperate, yet impossible dream with everything that she was.

She hated being human. She wanted to throw all of that away and evolve to the 'next level'.

For man there is no next level. There doesn't have to be. There shouldn't be. But she was too ignorant to understand that.

But back then, when her hopes and dreams had come crashing down – with that dead look in her eyes I looked at her and it was as though I'm looking at myself in a mirror. And for that I truly despise her.

But I'm different now. I'm going to take my future for myself, Sea of Fragments be damned. I'm going to reshape this world the way I want to. I'm going to use my strength to rebuild.

To a great extent, Riku Furude was weak. He'd given in to so many of his human desires and in the end he began our cycle of pain. Onigafuchi fell because he simply lacked – He lacked the determination. He lacked the will. He lacked the strength. It was because of his human weakness – a weakness that all humans share equally in, but at the same time a weakness that by no means governs our very lives.

Our human weakness leads to nothing but conflict and death. No matter the context war and peace are both inherently influenced by the whims of human nature. Yesterday's ally may become today's enemy – such is how our world functions. Such is how the weak pretend to be strong.

Money, wealth, power – none of those things make you strong. Only in the context of our society do such things translate into strength. Physical brawn doesn't necessarily attribute to strength either – will and reason are the only two measures of true strength.

Mion was strong. But her love for her family and her desire to protect them all led to her exploitation. Her family was weak and inferior. She had no place in loving them – but she did, and she would do anything to protect them. Her determination led to the loss of many lives, but even then her family took advantage of her at every turn. Why was Mion unable to make her truly just decision? Because the weak ruled every aspect of her life. The weakness of her family governed every aspect of her. And her inner reason told her that there was nothing she could ever bring herself to do about it.

Rena was just as strong. And she made a truly just decision. She would sacrifice the few for the sake of the many, even though in the end it didn't make a difference what path she chose. She didn't let the weak overturn her will – she was manipulated into doing their bidding but in the process she never let her spirit die.

_Null _isn't Rena's dream. Rena wants a world where she can be happy. She wants a world where human weakness can no longer control us the way it does.

Riku Furude was always wrong – the solution was never self sacrifice by itself. For by human nature 'sacrifice' would never have the same meaning or the same gravity for too long – 'sacrifice' would be nothing more than a way for a ruler to justify their weakness as something superior to true strength. Rena had given up her happiness for the sake of another's happiness in an expression of true strength. There is simply no comparison, and without a doubt I know that after Riku's sacrifice the Furude clan did just this and with each generation to such extremes that my liar of a mother would eventually commit her unforgivable sin.

My clan is shameful. Not once did we deserve to rule Hinamizawa.

But now I fully intend to put an end to all of it.

Only the strong can rebuild. The weak will always leave holes for the mistakes of the past to leak through. The weak will always live first and foremost for themselves and could never live for the sake of others.

The strong will act justly. The strong will act for the sake of common interest. The strong will live, learn, but never regret. The strong will take responsibility for their actions. The strong will be able to love without fail.

But Rena was always right – for us this is impossible. For us overcoming weakness with strength is impossible. The fact that Nero came to exist is proof of this.

For humanity, a world where the strong truly rule is the only hope we have for a future. For humanity, _Yosuga _is the only way. I would make the world of _Yosuga _for Rena, Mion, and everyone else. And I was prepared to give up every part of me in the process.

For some reason, the moment I'd decided on that –

The space before me suddenly changes – I'm blinded by a white light that e en obscures the marble surface beneath me.

I don't stop moving – I keep moving forward –

And when the light finally clears I find myself in front of what appeared to be the wreckage of a building.

There were huge chunks of what had seemingly been an old, European building scattered about everywhere. Situated behind it all was a massive throne that despite being toppled to the side to a serious degree still stood several feet in the air –

By the time I see him I feel that it's already too late –

Sprawled out on the ground near the massive pile of rubble at the center was Dreamer, terribly wounded but still somewhat conscious.

I run to his side immediately – his hand has been cut off, his chest is punctured – he was in terrible shape.

The moment he realizes I'm there he starts gagging. Coughing up a variable amount of blood he tries to focus on me – his eyes are far too shaky for that. Just how much blood has he lost?

"You sure took your sweet time." He grins, although it seems mostly out of place given how ghastly his appearance is.

"What happened?"

"Mion." He replies rather bluntly. "She wouldn't go down. I had to pull out all the stops. Fucked myself over in the process but eh, I was getting sick of this body anyway."

"What's the plan?"

"The Crucible is just up ahead. Past that big throne. You keep going straight and you'll get there without any problems."

"I'm talking about how we're going to deal with _you_, idiot."

"You really think this is fixable? I got hit with some pretty nasty red truth – this wound won't heal no matter what you do to me."

"I'm not just going to leave you, here –"

"You don't have a choice."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because everything I've told you up to this point has been –"

"A lie? Because you want to do your own thing once we kill Nebiros?"

"…"

In truth, I already had an idea of why he'd gone so far out of his way to help me. Why he'd done the things he'd done for me –

I knew more of his history now than I'd ever before. I knew that he had gone to great lengths to overcome his weakness. He'd spent a lifetime trying to resolve all the problems his weakness created. He was like me – he was weak, but had gradually become strong. We were too similar for me to care about anything else –

I knew the world he wanted to build would be different from mine. We were two different people, after all, but even if his world was the one that ended up being made – could I have ever said that I'd hate him for it?

No, that wouldn't be right. I couldn't do something like that.

I rest one of my hands on his right shoulder. His body tenses at my touch, but it didn't seem to cause him any pain.

"You've said it yourself before… You're weak. You've been trapped between a rock and a hard place. You've been put in a position where you've given into your weakness. But I understand – I know that facing that weakness can seem impossible. You spent a lifetime trying to stand up to it, but even though you failed you never stopped fighting. I don't care what path you want the world to take after we've finished all of this – it wouldn't change anything… I wouldn't love you any less for it, Keiichi."

He's somewhat speechless for a moment – he sighs, shaking his head.

"Who's supposed to be the idiot here?" He sighs again. "…Or perhaps this is what strength really is?"

In that moment with strength I doubted he still had he shoves me away with his hand – I'm sent backward a good distance but –

In the instant I do there's a sudden explosions coming from the large pile of rubble. I'm sent rolling off even further but eventually manage to stop my self – I try to stand, only to be hit squarely in the head with a flying chunk of rubble. Resisting the urge to pass out I shield myself for further impact, managing to protect myself from another large chunk –

Very quickly the dust clears – no, it's more as though a sudden shift in air pressure forced it to scatter.

Dreamer is crumpled up like a sheet of paper off to the side, while at the center of the blast zone –

"Come now… You have to kill me a little harder than that, Kei-chaaaan…!"

Mion is standing there, her body quite literally in shambles – her left arm is completely blown away. Her stomach was seemingly burned away leaving a gaping see-through hole in her torso. Her head was lopsided, being held up by nothing more than a choice selection of clearly visible bones that could only do half of the job on their own. Her face was mostly charred – about a third of her skin was left relatively untouched, while the bulk of her hair had been burned away –

And in her right hand was a katana, tarnished and dulled, but still as defiant as the rebellious snarl on her face and the burning passion in her eyes. That was how I knew for certain this was Mion – because the fire in her eyes, her will to overcome her weakness, was still clearly there. Even though she'd been reduced to something barely recognizable, she was still who she was – and no one else.

This was what Mion's ambition had reduced her to. And I could barely bring myself to look at her.

"Rika…!" Dreamer cries out in pain. "This is all she has left…! All she has is her killing intent…! You have to stop her before she loses herself completely…!"

I suddenly feel the need to move into action – I run forward towards her, but before I'm able to even take on my newly gained bird form I was jabbed with the hilt of the katana. In the moment that I stagger Mion backhands me with astounding force, sending me flying off to the side. I rise to my feet and run towards her again, this time managing to materialize Nero's old sword, Totsuka – but my swing is parried all too easily. Despite how my weapon was the stronger of the two the katana has no difficulty managing my attack – Mion once again strikes me, this time in the stomach before slashing at me diagonally. I manage to back away just in time but Mion very quickly closes the distance and manages to land a solid blow on me – my left side is cut open as I try to move away, not accounting for the speed of Mion's katana and how versatile her uses with it could be – half of these movements and slashes were barely even possible for a healthy sword expert to pull off, yet here she was, half dead and probably even more efficient.

I manage to recover my balance from that hit, but not without consequence – as I back off and attempt to reposition myself for another charge I trip on a large piece of rubble. Mion sees this as instantly as it happens and makes a move towards me, but I luckily enough anticipate the move as soon as she had thought to make use of it and I roll out of the way, timing my swing with Totsuka to land a solid blow on her sword arm –

But it doesn't do me much good. Before I know it I'm back on my feet and she's already moving towards me again –

This time I needed a plan. How exactly was I going to get around her seemingly perfect stance? Without Dreamer it seemed that I was unable to go into my winged form, and without that I'd likely have no chance in hell of winning here. But Mion was only human – she had to have a weakness, somewhere…!

After dodging her next attack I see it – I manage to see a brief moment where her physical condition takes its toll on her – right after she swings, there's a delay in her recovery. The katana clearly feels heavier to her than it should.

Of course – her back. I hadn't seen her back – but it was very likely that her back had taken serious damage based on the size of the hole where her stomach had been. Her spine was possibly out of alignment and her right shoulder blade might have been damaged as well –

I move in – I manage to anticipate her next move – her swing radius was actually fairly confined despite how strange her swings seemed to be before. She can only swing diagonally and horizontally – she likely couldn't lift her arm all the way up for a vertical strike. Knowing this, there were two ways of being able to guarantee a favorable outcome despite how fast her reflexes were – one, know the difference between a diagonal strike and a horizontal one and memorize her body language for both. Two, memorize her timing and seek a moment where the direction of her attack is apparent and parry –

I manage to correctly anticipate a diagonal strike aimed at my right side – I then can see her follow up swing rather perfectly. Her shoulder shifts in such a way that suggests a horizontal blow – I move Totsuka to parry and –

Her attack is successfully repelled.

I ram Totsuka into her chest and whatever blood she had left sprays –

But she never lets go of the blade and with all of her might she runs her blade through me – the sheer force of her thrust sends me flying backwards, my blood spraying everywhere.

I was so close – I missed her heart. That was all that kept me from my victory.

I'm sent flying – but despite how my vision becomes a blur I can still see him –

I'm flying in Dreamer's direction…!

I crash no more than three feet away from him – and almost immediately Mion breaks out into a sprint – she was going to retrieve her blade and probably take my life with it…!

"Any last minute ideas?" I grunt, trying to get Dreamer's attention.

"…Just one." He speaks, barely above a whisper. But despite his words he doesn't seem to make any obvious sign of movement.

She's only a few feet away now – but before I can even steel myself for the impact she leaps into the air, determined to put an end to this as swiftly as possible.

Mion hurtles towards me –

And only when she was no more than two feet away from me, Dreamer finally moves –

He vanishes in a flash of light and becomes the Velvet Death on my arm –

I instinctively aim and prepare for the recoil of a shot –

Mion tries to slow herself down but only succeeds to a certain degree –

The cannon glows, but –

The cannon suddenly bursts into sparks and in a blink of my eye it had dashed across the empty space between the two of us and reforms itself on Mion's sword arm. The added weight stunts her trajectory, dragging her to the ground in all of an instant. I manage to move away fast enough to avoid her, sliding her katana out of me in the process. I manage to rise to my feet as the wound begins to seal itself – I'm still left completely exhausted, but at least I'm alive for the moment.

I look straight ahead –

The Velvet Death begins to glow once again – but instead of the same shimmering color, this was a dark, glaring red.

Mion struggles to pull Velvet Death off of her arm, but it's no use –

_This is the only way… I'm sorry._

The moment I hear his voice, I already know what's about to happen.

"…No, no, there has to be another way."

_You could break her arm a million times – it won't stop her from fixing it. It'll never stop her. She'll never give in. She'll never stop – she'll fight for all eternity. _

…_Please. I have to be the one to put her to sleep. I have to make up for everything I've done._

"Doing this is hardly a way to make up for –"

_This is the only way. That I can say with certainty. This is the only way to make amends with her… I need to stop her, not for my sake – hell, not even for your sake. This is for her… This is what I have to do for her…_

"So _this _is what your ambition is going to amount to? I thought you had a dream, just like I do!"

_I've been dreaming for a long time – longer than anyone ever should. I've been sleeping for so long, dreaming of a world where I'd never have to dream ever again. But that was always impossible. _

"If you really believe that, then everything up to now means nothing!"

_I knew from the start… Musubi was impossible. I could never build that perfect world because I wasn't perfect… But more importantly, if becoming a true individual meant losing you, I'd never have been able to do it. _

I was beyond words at that point – but I couldn't let him do this.

I wasn't going to lose Keiichi anymore – I wasn't going to let him die anymore. He hasn't lived yet – he's been alive for so many years but he still hasn't lived. He's been trapped in 1983, in a hell on loop for thousands of years.

I wouldn't let him go.

I wouldn't let him throw himself away.

I start moving forward – I wasn't going to let him do this. He didn't deserve this –

_You come any closer and I'll shoot you where you stand!_

The coldness in his voice – it sounded so foreign to me, but at the same time –

"…It was all for nothing… If you die, this is all for nothing!"

_That's not true… You made it here. That's all that matters. _

"But even so –"

_Rika… I'm tired. This is as far as I want to go. I want that dreamless sleep – death is my only escape. And this is the only way I can die. I don't want to live anymore – I've done enough of that. This is what I have to do. I refuse to die without purpose – this is the only way I can die. The only way I can ever rest in peace. _

At first I couldn't believe what I was hearing – but…

_I've been alive longer than any other Keiichi – any Keiichi besides him. After I'm gone he's all that's left – you have to put an end to us – you have to kill 'Keiichi Maebara,' even if it's the last thing you do._

"I won't…! No, I can't… Can't you see that if I hurt you any more that it'll be too much for me to bear?!"

I couldn't resist it.

Not anymore.

My words, despite their strength –

They failed to acknowledge my reality.

I was once weak and had become strong, that much was certain.

But –

In the end –

Without Keiichi, I'd never have come this far. I'd probably never have escaped Takano's cycle the first time without him.

Without Keiichi, I couldn't be strong.

Without Keiichi, _Yosuga _was impossible.

Without him –

Without him it was all useless.

But…

_There's more to being than just being dead or alive. Who you are… Who you are to you and you alone is what makes you alive… But who you are, not in the eyes of someone else, but who you are __**to **__someone else… I've never cared what people saw me as. My struggle was a result of that – but when I came to Hinamizawa, I was something special to all of you, even if it was founded in ignorance. I'd rather relive Hinamizawa a million times than lose that feeling…! _

I couldn't come up with the words to reply to that –

_But Astaroth – he doesn't see it that way. His struggle never ended – he never found what I saw in you. He kept fighting and fighting and now all he wants is for everything to burn. He doesn't care what happens to anything, not even to himself. All he wants now is closure… You're the only one who can stop him. _

_I can say I'd do something 'no matter what', but my words are nothing but hollow and empty. But you're different. Dream or reality – none of that can hold you down. You have the strength to do whatever the fuck you want. _

_For me, this is the truth. And since you're strong –_

"I'm _not_ strong. Not without you. Not without being able to stand beside you… Even back then, you were the one who convinced me to keep fighting. Without you this will never –"

_You were never the one who caused me pain. I was the one who caused you pain. And for that, all of this is nothing more than our fate on loop. _

_Kill fate, Rika. Put Saya to rest. Let all of this end. This is a spectacle that should never repeat ever again. _

_No matter what world you make – _

_Please… Don't let mankind fall into these depths ever again. _

With that the Velvet Death glows an even more magnificent red –

It was only a matter of moments –

But I couldn't. I wouldn't.

If I had to go on and leave him behind –

I sprint forward. As I'd suspected he had no intention of shooting me down –

I drop to my knees and embrace the Velvet Death –

And all I can see is white.

All I can here is – simply nothing.

…

…

…

But then –

_So for your own sake you would even let my last request die?_

…_Heh._

_How cruel you are. _

_It's no wonder that it's come to this. _

_But this has to end._

'_Rika Furude in terms of Keiichi'_

'_Mion Sonozaki in terms of Keiichi' _

'_Everyone who loves Keiichi in terms of Keiichi'_

_You have to end it._

_Now you've finally reached the end of the road._

_You've stopped being Rika Furude once again._

_You're able to stand on your own now._

_The fate of our world is in your hands._

_You're strong._

_So I believe in you._

_Goodbye, you idiot._

_Even if it's not going to be the same for you –_

_I'm probably not going to stop loving you._

And I can see again –

Mion lies motionless against a chunk of rubble. Her sword arm is now completely gone and her blood has pooled around us. Her eyes are empty – she's still clearly breathing, but for all intents and purposes she is dead. Her body is of no use to her anymore – and without Keiichi, she has no definition.

She's gone. She's left this world, even though her body has yet to expire.

I look downward –

And in Mion's blood I can see myself –

And I am just the same –

Dead, but even then still living.

My eyes are hollow, streaked with tears, obscured by the hawk mask – on my back are the flaming wings, now spewing purple fire instead of blue. Draped over my shoulders is a dingy black coat and my jumpsuit has been scorched black. My fingernails have become claws, my palms coarse and rough –

This gaze – this look in my eyes.

It's been so long since I've seen it –

But deep down –

I knew. I knew how Keiichi had felt –

I knew his pain –

Or at least, a part of me that once did –

Slowly…

Came back to me…

My heart was black as sin. My soul was tarnished beyond recognition. In the one instant I'd ran towards Keiichi everything I had ever strived to do and everything that had made me Rika Furude all went up in smoke. I'd denied myself down to the very core.

At my side lies Totsuka, now pitch black and so much so that the metal didn't even shine, the hilt now long and thin, and the blade itself long and curved –

This was a scythe –

This is who I am – the hand that goes with this blade. This blade that would become an instrument of darkness, a darkness so black that it would even obscure the darkness that lied in wait before it.

The one true solution –

I'd never truly accepted it before.

Man has no right to rebuild the world of man –

But I am no man. And now my last shred of humanity has been taken away.

I never abandoned my humanity. I had only stopped being human. There is more difference between the two than there are stars in the sky.

But now that humanity is gone.

Now all that's left is the true embodiment of _Yosuga_. Pure, raw power, incapable of expressing the most basic of human flaws. Unstoppable strength with no parallel.

But even I don't care. Even then _Yosuga _isn't what's even driving me. In truth, it never was the point driving me. I need to build a new world for the sake of building a new world. Because this one has simply gone to shit and must be rectified for the sake of rectifying it.

That's all there was to it now –

Because I wanted a future, be it as a human, demon, witch, or whatever the hell I was. And damn anyone who would rob me of even that –

It didn't matter who they were. I'd burn them all away.

It would seem that, after all this time –

After all these years of pretending I was something I was not –

Pretending that my humanity was what truly drove me –

I've finally come back –

Back to where I started –

I've finally become the witch, Bernkastel, once more.

I rise – I do as Keiichi had told me. I simply keep going straight ahead. And no matter what awaited me I knew for certain that this was the end – the end of the road, and the final act of this endless play.

…This would be interesting.

* * *

_Akarana, the Road into Darkness  
__Bernkastel the Second (Bernkastel II)_

The world around me grew dark, as dark as the night sky. Countless fragments acting as stars in the sky begin to glisten as their shimmering forms descend, some like shooting stars and others like snow. Above them were dark purple clouds swirling rapidly at a central point, as though being sucked into the center of a storm – from beyond them came the sound of roaring thunder and flashes of blue lightning. This place was oddly similar to the Akarana Corridor – no, it was more accurate to say that this _was _the Akarana Corridor, only far more vast and perhaps more menacing. The flow of time was about as distorted here as it had been within that corridor.

Ahead of me was what appeared to be a massive glass staircase ascending into the dark purple clouds above – I waste no time. The Crucible was likely just up ahead. I proceed without caution, although I take care to fly as little as possible – I wasn't entirely sure what the restrictions on the wings were, if there were any at all, but I'd be damned if I'd do something as unintelligent as waste my only shot at victory this early on.

The path is winding – as I proceed onward the staircase seems to extend while the steps behind me vanish. It wasn't as though I was going to turn back anyhow, although in the event that something attacked me having some extra room on the ground to maneuver would have been nice.

I continue to climb – as I do, gusts of wind begin to roll past me. I was gradually getting closer to that storm and it was gradually getting harder to scale these stairs – I end up using my wings to skip several steps at a time until it gets to the point where the wind is strong enough so I _have _to start relying on the wings.

The clouds are only a few hundred feet above me now – but suddenly from above come several shimmering figures – they're wolves, made purely of ice, yet their breath igniting and creating flames.

"Now someone's just showing off." I grunt as I ready Totsuka – there are seven of them, too many for me to take out at once. Fortunately enough two of them start to pick up speed and eventually get close enough to lunge at me – their roaring creates two massive pillars of flame that I barely manage to avoid as Totsuka beheads one and punctures the other in the back of the neck. Totsuka was lodged in the second's neck and so I reverse my grip on the hilt and swing the blade in the direction of the others, the body flying from the blade and slamming into one of them, shattering both itself and its unfortunate target on impact and tripping another, causing it to fall off the staircase and down into the depths below. The remaining three all attempt to charge me at once, but I manage to leap into the air and avoid two of them – the third anticipates my move and leaps as I do, hurtling straight towards me. I bash my head against his and, as my head wasn't made of rather fragile ice and my target's head _was_, the wolf's head shatters into a thousand pieces and I continue up the staircase.

I eventually hear the other two chasing me - I leap again and turn midair. I throw Totsuka in an arcing motion. The blade cleaves both of them in half and the wind carries it back towards me. Once securing a firm grip on Totsuka I turn again –

A massive bird, most likely a crow if old habits do indeed die hard, is already a few inches away from my face. It slams into me with enough force to knock me off of the staircase – I take flight as to not plummet to my death and fly after it – it didn't chase me down after it had knocked me off course, so it was likely only there to prevent me from getting to the top.

I manage to close in on it as it makes a sharp turn – I ready Totsuka and manage to rip a hole in one of its wings – unfortunately there wasn't much other progress made than that – the crow seemed perfectly fine despite the wound and I'm forced to make another trip around –

Three more strikes later and it's rather apparent that I'm not going to do any real damage with all of these glancing blows – I had to attacking head on and hope that it didn't ram into me first.

I readjust my pattern – I fly high up enough for it to start chasing me – it begins to fly straight upward towards me. I begin my divebomb –

Totsuka rips through the bird's skull as I'm grazed by the underside of the beast. I manage to back away fast enough with Totsuka in hand and so narrowly avoid being dragged down into the depths with the carcass.

I continue my ascent, this time simply flying the rest of the way – eventually I enter the clouds, the thunder being blotted out by the immense roar of the wind.

The moment I enter the clouds I'm assaulted from all sides by sharp bursts of wind, each as sharp as a blade. I push straight upward using all the power my wings gave me – I can't see a thing, but I know that I'm still going up –

The pain becomes intense. Perhaps a little too much for my body to handle. But I keep flying regardless, the lashes of wind tearing into my skin all the more ferociously as I climb.

But eventually I see a light from beyond the clouds –

And I cross that threshold –

All is quiet. The clouds still swirl below me. I can clearly see the blue lightning in the distance, but none of it strikes anywhere close to me.

Off in the distance is a massive tower, white as snow, stretching high into the sky and far below the clouds –

The Crucible. I'd finally made it.

I take off towards it – as I move the lightning begins to strike closer and closer towards me, but I avoid it all with ease. My eyes were glue to the tower before me –

I see an entrance fairly far up, although I couldn't even see the top of the tower from here so I had no real idea of how tall it actually was. I manage to work my way across the sky and towards the entrance with relative ease.

The moment I step onto the cold, stone surface that made up the tower the howling wind falls silent. The lightning no longer flashes and the thunder no longer shouts.

Now the world truly stood still.

I head into the darkness of the hallway before me, knowing that now was the time.

* * *

_Crucible, the Tower of Babel  
__Bernkastel II_

The interior of the Crucible was entirely composed of white marble. The floor, the walls, even some of the stairs were all marble to the point where the pattern began to hurt my eyes. The entirety of the tower was about as hollow as could be, with the bulk of the tower being comprised by a staircase seven times the size of the glass staircase I'd gone up on my way here with massive support beams after every ten feet or so up the height of the tower. The stairs were stained with blood and the pillars were rather old and decrepit to the point where some of them seemed like they were going to crumble away at a moment's notice.

The climb up the tower didn't take that long considering how I made use of my wings every few feet or so. But all the while I couldn't help but feel the adrenaline rush – I was almost there. I was almost at the finale to all of this.

Eventually I reach the top of the staircase. I could only hope that this was the top of the tower although I doubted that I'd have gotten straight to Astaroth in such a short period of time. Before me is a set of massive double doors – they open on their own and leaving all hesitation at the door I enter the room.

The room is massive and circular, although more like a platform suspended in the air than anything else. The walls are all just as circular, but the floor doesn't quite reach them – a massive ring of nothing circles the room and likely acts like a pitfall leading to the depths below.

_She's_ standing there, as I had expected, quite literally wrapped in a world of her own chaos. She stands there at the very center, surrounded by what seemed to be a small portion of a forest ripped out of reality, slowly crumbling away to ashes around her as an invisible fire rages. She stands there, unfazed by the burning, even as the vines wrapped around her body seem to burn away as well.

She is wearing a ceremonial white robe, covered in black vines that seemed to stretch across and wrap around most of her body. Seemingly sewn into her gargantuan arm by those blackened vines is the Onigari no Ryuou, stained with blood and appearing to be more of a tarnished silver in color than the golden radiance it usually exerts. The very foundation of the Crucible seems to sway with her every breath as she seems to slowly animate.

I can see her face – her human half is as deathly pale as it was before, now stricken with tear streaks. The other half of her face was still obscured by the void of the deer skull, the only remaining red eye as blazing red as it always had been. Her expression is extremely pained – she certainly was suffering, and if I was to believe the fragment she'd shown me she was suffering eternally at that.

"This has gone on long enough." I speak, breaking the silence. "I know your story now – I'm sorry, but this is the end of all of this."

"…" She wordlessly replies, raising the Onigari no Ryuou.

"I won't disagree with you. A world without pain would truly be a wonderful world… But you already tried making a world like that. You tried making a world without pain and you created love. But humanity can't exist without pain – humanity can't evolve without suffering. Denying everything that makes humanity what it is while being fundamentally human yourself – _of course _that kind of existence would be painful. But you can't dictate our world – humans make their own mistakes. But the strong, like Rena, will live with them. I'm willing to die to ensure that a world where Rena will be happy can come to fruition."

She lets out a loud howl.

"Despite everything I don't hate you. You gave us all the capacity to care for each other. There's no greater gift than that. I don't know where you came from, or who gave birth to you. But you gave dimension to who we are – _that's _what you're supposed to be. Someone who spreads the gift of feeling. Intellect. All the things that make us who we're supposed to be."

"You're not supposed to be something as cynical as 'fate'. You're the will for a future. For a tomorrow greater than today… But if you won't stop this, then I have no choice."

She lets out another howl. I ready Totsuka -

"I have to stop you… You see, you're not the only one anymore. _I _have a will for the future too."

The ground beneath me shakes violently as Nebiros – the Frozen Flame – kicks off the ground and spirals towards me, the Onigari no Ryuou poised to pierce through me.

I kick off the ground myself and take flight, arcing my flight path around her. But she changes her own direction, kicking off of the wall behind me and spiraling in my direction. I had the advantage of flight, but ultimately that was not enough – that wasn't enough to overcome the product of countless millennia of pain. The Onigari and Totsuka lock at last, my own inhuman force of sheer will colliding with Saya's own. The sheer emotion of her strike is almost enough to overpower me all on its own – I slide Totsuka out of the lock and move past her.

Saya touches the ground – and without turning around she points the Onigari in my direction. A huge concentrated burst of dark fire spews from the tip – it's large enough that I can only avoid it if I dive to the ground right now, but if I did Saya would be able to counterattack effortlessly.

I decide to go for it anyhow – I dive as fast as I can and try to rise up fast enough so I can make a sharp turn around her – but she catches me with her free hand, grabbing me by the head and slamming me into the marble floor headfirst.

"This isn't the answer." I mutter, my voice muffled by the shattered floor. "…You know better than this. I know you do… Stop rejecting yourself. If you don't things aren't going to be any different when you end the world."

Still holding me by the back of my head, she thrashes me about effortlessly, lifting my entire body as though I were some sort of a ragdoll. I take the pain – I didn't come all this way and break so many rules so I could die like some normal person.

Eventually she hurls me across the room and into the far off wall – luckily enough the force of my impact bounces me back far enough so I don't fall into the pit. I find myself having trouble standing afterward, but in a few moments my wings come online again and I move back into the air.

Totsuka can't seem to put a dent into her, but at any rate I was at least managing to wear her down. After several quick strikes I manage to manage to get a feel for how her attacks seemed to flow. She mainly focuses on her ranged shots, but at the same time she didn't use them in a position where she knew where to hit me. That position was roughly at mid range – at that point she would mostly got into a frenzy of slashes, taking advantage of the extended range the Onigari provided and would generally hit me as though I were a fly she was aiming to swat. If I got any closer than that she would result to melee – she would grab a hold of me.

Knowing that I could formulate some plan of attack. But at the same time I had to wonder – would any of this matter? Was it really this simple to defeat her?

… It had to be. After all, she'd awoken to her human weakness. She was killable. I just had to figure out how. She'd survived every fatal bout we've had so far – ultimately the only way of eliminating her entirely was to destroy her 'heart', the Frozen Flame itself. That was likely her only real weakness. She'd managed to recover it and despite being nearly blown away she recovered all the same. Without her heart, she was likely about as vulnerable as could be.

I couldn't kill her with the Velvet Death, that much was certain. Perhaps destroying the Frozen Flame was enough, but perhaps it wasn't.

Although at the moment it didn't matter.

Before I could allow her to die, I needed answers. Hanyuu's been trying her hardest to hide the truth. But I would force it out of her, and Saya was my guarantee that she'd talk.

So for now this is all I can do. I'll just beat her into submission. I'll beat her down until she stops moving, even.

I anticipate another barrage of dark fire and I'm correct in my assumption – she manages to avoid my follow up attack completely and as expected she goes into her beat down frenzy. Knowing this ahead of time I manage to properly gauge her range and with as much accuracy as I could manage I manage to hook Totsuka around her more human arm –

With a yank her blood sprays. Her arm is severed completely. But even then I'm in her mid range, and so she slashes at me with the Onigari.

She manages to open a segmented gash from the top of my left shoulder down to my abdomen. I took the pain from that gash a lot worse than she took the pain from losing her arm. In fact, she seemed completely undeterred.

"You're going to make me take your head off, aren't you?" I sigh. "There's no point in this. Stop. You'll just end up feeling more pain." I move to strike her again, successfully anticipating her mid range attack and open a wound along her left side – she was mostly defenseless, but even then she still manages to trade a hit, this time thrusting the entirety of the blade towards my right arm – each branch of the Onigari punctures my arm – but for the most part completely intentionally.

Shifting what strength I had into my left arm I swing Totsuka, successfully arcing the blade and hooking it around Saya's back – my next move was essentially an all or nothing move. At this distance she'd make use of her inhuman strength to repel me – and she does despite her lack of a free arm, ramming her knee into my stomach. I manage to withstand the force of the blow and pulling on Totsuka's hilt I pull her as close to me as possible.

Saya sees this move only momentarily. She tries to yank Onigari out of my arm but finds it rather difficult as several of the branches get caught on my bones –

"You're in a bit of a bind, huh? Let me help you with that…!" I pull my right arm backward, freeing the Onigari of my arm – and with sheer, brute force my newly formed fist crashes into Saya's skull.

She staggers backward, but as Totsuka is still wrapped around her she can't back far enough away from me – I slam my fist into her skull again – at last it cracks under the pressure.

The force of my next strike sends me off balance and my hold on Totsuka is shaken. Saya takes the opportunity to swing at me with the Onigari but she misses outright – at that very moment I was much faster than she had been. Her inhuman speed finally failing her she misses outright.

Releasing Totsuka entirely I grab a hold of her sword arm – with a loud snap I bend it backwards, shattering the very human bones beneath the black vines. She howls in pain, but not before I make another dent in her deer skull.

Her movement is about as sluggish as mine at this point – she decides to bash my head with hers, causing my vision to swim for all but a moment. She manages to do so once more, but when she moves in for her third bash my hands stop her –

I pull her down by the back of her head and my knee collides with her face –

She falls backward – and as she does I once again land a solid blow to her deer skull –

It shatters completely. The force of my blow scatters the bone to the wind –

Beneath the mask is all of Saya – her human face.

Indeed, she was the spitting image of Rena. But her eyes – they spoke nothing to me in the slightest. They were indeed Yatagarasu's eyes – Astaroth's eyes.

Her expression is vacant –

But I can clearly see her wince when I ram my fist into her right eye. At this point it's a losing battle for her – we were both as slow as could be, but she had nothing else to fight me with –

I reach for Totsuka – the scythe comes to me on its own.

I swiftly kick Saya in the stomach – she staggers backward but does not fall entirely –

This would do it –

I raise Totsuka and –

With one swift strike, the blade cleaves Saya's torso in two –

She falls forward, against me, the sheer force of the swing having yet to fully split her apart –

"This was _your _fate…" I whisper into her ear. "…For standing against Bernkastel, Witch of Miracles, death is your only consequence."

She falls backward and her lower abdomen separates from her upper half. Blood sprays everywhere.

There is silence. Nothing but silence.

And then –

"The Frozen Flame…" She finally speaks. "Is not that which determines the fate of the world… The Frozen Flame takes _possibility _and gives it shape… This world that you love so much was given shape because it was possible…!"

"So the world will end no matter what I do to you… And who made it possible?"

"…Would you like to know… Who built this tower? Man… Man built this tower to stand up to that which looked down upon it… And because of that this world is the way it is… Man was denied the stars, and so man was forever cut off from that which gave it shape… And I… I came here, because… Because it was possible…"

"Then what created the possibility for all of this?"

"Man… Man gave birth to this possibility. This world is doomed because of man… And only because of man… If you rewrite the world, as long as there is man… This 'fate' will be eternal. Fate… fate is nothing but your own creation… You reap… What you sow… and now, not only will you face the wrath of one you love, but the wrath of the universe itself… Your heart is tainted the darkest of black… You are… beyond redemption."

"If that's the case then so be it. There's no going back from here anyhow."

"…Why? Why didn't…you listen?"

"Because Rena doesn't want this world."

"But… But the world of _Null_-"

"Enough… All you did was act on your own impulse. You wanted to create a world of _Null _for yourself and yourself alone… Rena would never have wanted such a world. In fact, she would hate you for throwing away everything she loved."

"…Was it so impossible? Was making her happy that… Impossible?"

"You were too human. That was why it was impossible."

"And you… You've abandoned your humanity altogether."

"That is the case."

She smiles. It's a soft smile, but a smile none the less. "Very well… Frederica Bernkastel the Second… Climb the tower to the end of the world and then… Then we shall see if your will can overcome the will of the world."

"You still have something of mine –"

I take a step forward, but in that moment I'm repelled by something seemingly invisible –

"Enough."

Before I know it Hanyuu is there, at Saya's side, cradling the girl's head in her arms.

"I was wondering when you were going to show up."

"It's over. She can't hurt you anymore. So let it end." She speaks, not even looking in my general direction. "What you're looking for isn't even here – the Frozen Flame lies with _him_ now."

"So then, all of this –"

"All of this was my fault. Is that what you wanted to hear? It's my fault that all of this started, and it's my fault she went insane… That's all there is to it."

"And you can live with that guilt?"

"I don't plan to live for much longer."

"You think I'm going to lose." I turn away from her.

"You can't stop him. His hate is far more powerful than yours will ever be. He'll see everything burn no matter what. And-"

"And that isn't going to change a damn thing. I made your daughter stop moving. I'll do the same to him."

"It's not as simple as that… He's like you. He's not human anymore. He rejected his humanity a long time ago. Long before you were even born."

"He's always been like me. That's why I'm the only one who can stop him."

"If that's what you believe go ahead… I won't stop you."

I walk off towards the doors, leaving Hanyuu behind.

Her sin was creating the possibility for Nebiros to take form. She was willing to live with that – or rather she was willing to live with her guilty for what time she thought she had left. She'd betrayed Riku for Astaroth, even if only in her heart. But that was already more than enough –

"…Mark my words. For you, hell will be nothing short of eternal damnation. You'll pay for everything you've done."

"For betraying you?"

"For casting our world into chaos. For having no strength of heart. For deceiving me, making me believe that there was such a thing as hope. And most importantly for leaving your daughter to a fate worse than death… For all of your sins I will make you burn eternally."

"…Indeed, you shall…" She trails off before whispering sweet nothings into the not quite dead but not quite alive Saya's ears.

That was the last I ever saw of her – that was all I ever needed to see of her.

She'd suffer in her own way soon enough.

But for now –

For now I had one final obstacle in my path –

I continue to scale the tower. I climb the stairs as far as they would take me and, after what felt like hours and hours the staircase finally leads to another set of double doors –

I could feel the killing intent from the other side. But I couldn't back away now. I push the doors open and I find myself on the roof of the tower.

Before me is a massive, black throne, stretching at least twelve feet into the sky.

And atop that throne – is Astaroth, the Demon King, the Frozen Flame firmly fastened to his chest, the hat he usually wore replaced with a golden crown, sitting lopsided atop his head. He looks down on me with what seems to be a mix of glee and contempt. And as it always has been his eyes are a mystery –

But perhaps –

Perhaps I can see it –

Perhaps I can see the truth glistening in them.

"So you've finally made it to the top, have you?" He speaks rather nonchalantly.

"You've got something that belongs to me."

"Belongs to _you _eh?" He laughs. "You're a real dipshit, aren't you? You turned out more nicely than I'd ever could've imagined… _Bernkastel the Second_… Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"

I point the edge of Totsuka in his direction defiantly. "I've got a fancy name for you too… _Keiichi Maebara the First. _How does that one sound?"

His gaze shifts. "Ah, so you've thought it through that much, have you…?"

"Rena told me you had something to tell me. Something important. Something only you could tell me."

"…So she's dead for real this time, huh…?"

"Funny. You almost sound like you care."

"…Well, you haven't been lied to. There's something I _do _have to tell you."

"Then tell me… Tell me everything."

"…Very well, then… I'll tell you everything – Everything about this sad story of ours."

And so –

And so he told me.

He told me everything.

He told me the truth.

The pure and unadulterated truth.

And –

And the truth –

For the longest time I felt as though this was some unavoidable calamity. This bout between the two of us –

But –

The truth –

The truth set me free.

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

And so ends the question arcs.

So here we are. **This is the point of no return. The next update will happen within the next five days and will start the final arc, the answer arc. At that point, the culprit's identity will be revealed. Get hype.**

So yeah. Definitely look forward to it. Because I'm going to, once and for all, explain _everything. __**Everything. **_

So until then, keep on reading.


	22. Endless Enders Chapter, Episode 1

_**Endless Enders Chapter, Episode 1  
**__In This World of Closed Time_

At the end of the world there is simply nothing – at the end of the world there can never be anything. At the end of the world hopes and dreams along with desires and needs all fade away into a special sort of darkness – and before too long, everything from the simplest thought to the most profound of theories is reduced to nothing. At the end of the world, meaning itself is lost to the annals of time and space and to such an extent that being will never truly be ever again.

The world has ended, that much is certain. But even then that which has been denied even the right to be can still be – and it is by that lone contradiction that the world has not been burned to ashes just yet. Preparing for the end of everything, the lone woman steps forward to search for the answer – the answer to everything. The answer to life, the answer to death, the answer to 'how', 'why', and 'who'. The answer that the world has been deprived of. The answer that means so much that perhaps with the truth exposed the world may still have a chance.

As long as there is one person, or even something less than a person, there will always be 'being' and 'meaning'. As long as the possibility exists, or even a possibility of a possibility exists, it shall take form, even if only once in one million instances. For that one in one million, fate will smile upon the living and dead and bring justification to the accursed world one last time and will do so for as many last times as the universe will permit.

It is through this that travel through the Sea of Fragments is possible. Every possibility is honored by the universe. That was how it was built. That was how my people gave it shape. And furthermore, it is through this behavior that the girl stands before me now, the truth eternally lost to her, yet at the same time the possibility for the truth to at long last come out still as apparent as the fire in her eyes.

She has no name. She has no right to be. Her life has ended and she has no means of truly existing ever again. She is bound to her fate by the chains her people built, yet she fights for the future of her people. Her fate is final. She will die, no matter what. But in the end that will never stop her. She will never give in, even if millions upon millions of years weigh against her fragile bones and broken heart. There is no redemption for the things she has done, nor is there absolution for her sins in a world beyond this one – her purpose is all that she is.

_I am Shion Sonozaki. I am the one who seeks the truth. This is who I am. _

Her will is made of iron and her soul of the hardest steel. Her bones and skin are as fragile as ice and her heart is made of glass. She is exploitable weakness and insurmountable strength. She is what man can never be, for she is no man. She cannot reshape the world for all she amounts to is a small part of it.

She has no value. She is something that is unique beyond understanding but in the end is worthless.

But her meaning does not change. It cannot change.

_I am Shion Sonozaki. I am the one who seeks the truth. This is who I am._

In the end there's no value to things like ambiguity or symbolism or even something as basic and fundamentally one dimensional as a play on words. The truth is all that has ever mattered, but at the same time the truth is something that has been just out of the reach of mortal hands. Man has been forced to cling to ambiguity, symbolism, and one dimensional things for as long as it has existed. Man has turned to music, art, and material things to make up for the inevitability of that back.

But for this girl there is no song in her heart. My _Ode to Joy _would never reach her ears. To her math and science mean nothing. She would set her own house on fire a thousand times if it served as a means to her end. At the very base, at her most fundamental level, she seeks the truth. She seeks to reach out and grab it with her own hands. It is her purpose, the very foundation of her being to obtain that which man has never obtained.

But she is no man. But she was indeed mortal. But her mortality gave her strength. Mortality gave her fear in the face of death but the courage to overcome it without fail. It was through rejecting all else that she has come this far – what made her human made her weak, but what made her 'the one who seeks the truth' made her strong.

The world has ended. All that is left is this world of closed time.

And as the world ends, the detective and the detective _alone _seeks absolution, not for herself, but for the very foundation of this universe we have created.

So time and time again has she come here, to this world of closed time, not to escape her own death, but to free her people of the very chains they built for themselves. The world she seeks is simply the world she knows and the world she loves, even if only for the sake of one person.

For the sake of that one person the Child of No Man created this. Gave shape to this possibility. Provided form for the whims of a dying girl with nothing to either live or die for. This possibility has made all the difference. For without this possibility there was no hope for this world.

It is because of this possibility that we are here now, watching and waiting for the moment that the truth falls into the hands of man. For the moment that the world of man becomes the epicenter of the universe. The moment man devoured the fruit of knowledge he sealed his fate – and by giving up the fruit man shall free himself from that which he has given life.

Man should never have come this far. That is why the universe has denied man its right to be. But for one who is no man – for one who is barely even human to have denied both the order of nature and the whim of possibility, perhaps it is possible to achieve an end beyond the scope of the universe we intended to create. And if two such forces, one representing what remains of human goodness and one representing the ever absolute nature of universal evil, were to collide head on, the result would be something far beyond even my own comprehension.

Very well then, child of man, Shion Sonozaki, the one who seeks the truth. You have caught my interest. I wonder, if your heart could produce a song, what sort of song would it be…?

* * *

_Nebulous Dream Chapter, In This World of Closed Time  
__Shion Sonozaki, the One True Detective_

And once again I'm back here in this world of closed time – back in this hellhole large enough for a whole country to silently slip into. Once again I'm back here in Hinamizawa, in the accursed village I've learned to despise with all my heart, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

The truth is always just out of reach. But come hell or high water I'll reach out and grab it. That's why I'll do this as many times as I have to, even if it takes another twenty thousand years. For the longest time I've been trying to uncover the truth. For Keiichi, for Mion, even for Rika. And I'll never stop. Not now, not ever. And so once again I begin my investigation. For every chance I get may be my last.

This fragment simply isn't a fragment – this is a possibility of a fragment that never was and never should be, but because of how the world works here it is. And just as is the case with all the others this fragment is as heartless an interpretation of my loved ones as any of the others. For now all I knew was that someone had died and it was up to me to find out who as was always the case.

Not once had I faltered – I've been giving it my all for as long as I've been on this path. There's simply been too much at risk to throw in the towel. But now – now it was different in a way that I really couldn't understand.

This fragment felt strange. It felt as though it was about to tear apart at the seams. What would happen to this world of closed time if that occurred wasn't something I wanted to be around to study in detail. But why this place was about to fall apart wasn't something I could say with any amount of certainty.

This time was no different from any other.

Yet –

Yet there had been change. There had been deviation from the standard I was so used to.

I felt as though this twenty thousand year road of mine was about to come to an abrupt end.

…Was this perhaps what Rika had felt? What had given her the profound hope that helped her overcome Takano? And at the same time what had reduced her to what she is now?

Perhaps, but perhaps not. Perhaps it was something far simpler than that. Something far less ambiguous.

Something that I'd bet an arm had something to do with Keiichi.

Keiichi is what defines us all, after all.

But I have removed him from the equation.

I've taken _us _into account.

I know it's one of us. I know one of us is behind it all.

But no matter how many times –

No matter how many fragments I scrutinize down to the last detail, I can't find the answer.

But –

With this deviation, would this fragment be different? Would this fragment provide the answer? I could only hope it would.

I was on the grounds of the Furude Shrine – the rain was still in this world of closed time, but the lingering phantoms of Mion, Satoko, and eventually Rika and Keiichi sprinted across the cold and lifeless space as though things were as normal as they'd ever been.

This world of closed time only shows me what I need to see. Only things that I need to know – but never what they mean. Never their significance. Only what they are at face value and nothing more.

I enter the house without a second thought – it wasn't as though anyone lived here anymore. I glance around the hall – I can hear ownerless footsteps echoing throughout the house, all gravitating towards the kitchen –

Time moves forward in this world of closed time like a video tape – back and forth, focusing on particular points and freezing on them.

For now time moves methodically and in a linear, straight pattern. Inside the kitchen they're all there, having tea. Mion and Keiichi sit in an awkward silence while Satoko and Rika pretend not to notice. The tea is served – the tea is all served from the same pot. The pot is not touched afterward. As talk about the Yamainu and the alleged demon persists the tension only builds – eventually they all go to bed. Keiichi heads up first while Mion starts showing signs of fatigue.

It made sense – after all, she was the one who was always controlling the body. She always had a great deal of stress placed upon her – she'd only just recently come to terms with the murders she carried out as Jack, but before she even had the opportunity to put all of it behind her she was tossed into yet another crisis devised by our pitiful society. And with my personality always weighing on her it was a miracle that she could even bring herself to wake up in the morning.

I'd noticed significant changes in her personality over the days before this, at least the memories injected into me upon my arrival here told me so. She'd started to adopt certain aspects of my speech patterns and began to perceive my speech as stunted sentences, removing words that she'd inaccurately associated with herself –

She was outright suffering from the personality disorder all on her own now. There wasn't much else to it other than that…

…Or rather, there was _much _more to it than that.

All it did was remind me what I was doing this for – for Satoshi, who no longer has the chance to live, for Mion who deserves the life that's been denied to her, for Keiichi who deserves to love and cherish freely, and for Rika who carries the heavy weight of her family's sins on her back out of duty. For them I'd do this – for them I'd put an end to this on my own.

What was strange about it all in this instance was that Rika seemed to take perfect notice of Mion's level of stress despite how well she was able to mask it – the only reason why I could ever notice in the first place was that we were essentially one and the same, but for Rika to take note on a whim was something that seemed odd more outright than anything else that was going on here –

Perhaps Rika, someone who has been known to time travel as I have, came across a similar set of conclusions as I have come to. Of course why her consciousness would have time traveled to a fragment that would never be is beyond me, I couldn't really make any particular judgment based on that alone.

I decide to go over things again in terms of what I know about this fragment.

Keiichi and Mion have already kissed at this point. Mion's already let her feelings get the better of her – her pattern of development seems to go in a very definitive and organized set of stages and has done so in every fragment I've come across before now.

Stage one – Mion despairs and does so until she is reminded that Keiichi can save her from her deteriorating state of mind. She desperately seeks to tie some sort of a knot with him purely for her own sake, as is always the case. She finds it harder and harder to do so as time goes on and therefore as she becomes more and more susceptible to the selfishness of her actions. Mion is selfless by nature. But there was something beyond her nature that always manipulates her as though she were a puppet on strings.

Stage two – Mion either confesses her feelings outright or indirectly lets Keiichi know for certain that she desires him. Immediately afterward she is torn – she knows that Rena loves Keiichi as she does and knows that Satoko and I both have the Satoshi parallel with him that she hates herself for trying to deny. As time progresses she considers abandoning the club and securing her own slice of happiness. It is while Mion is progressing through this stage that I presume the One True Culprit, the one behind everything, becomes well aware of her feelings and as such she is targeted.

Stage three – Mion either succumbs to the Hinamizawa Syndrome or is subject to mass hallucination. She either is a direct factor in Keiichi's death – but not the perpetrator themselves – or ends up dying trying to stop it. At this point she encounters the culprit no matter what, but this is not to say that Mion can't be killed at any point before this.

I know for certain that Rika can't know any of these particular details. But at any rate she can at least recognize Mion as she goes through the second phase. As a direct result of this, Mion and Satoko end up changing rooms – Satoko was originally going to be on the bottom floor with Rika, but she was moved to the top.

Now _why _this was something Rika bothered to do is beyond me. But all I knew from the scene before me was that she had called them back and had told them to switch rooms. Keiichi is already on the second floor and presumably heading straight to his room, which makes him the first to retire.

The next bit I'm allowed to observe in this closed time rendition of the incoming incident is a rather condensed version of the second floor –

I'm standing in front of the window where Keiichi and Mion had gone through their episode. Just to my left is Satoko's room – I had to presume that she wasn't dead yet.

I peer out the window – the forest beyond the village was just beyond the moderately sized patch of grass that served as Rika's front lawn. If the killer would be able to approach from some external place it would be relatively quick and easy for them to seek into the forest to avoid capture. But just beyond the start of the tree line was a wall of floating caution tape, completely concealing the forest beyond those trees. I would seem that this world of closed time was even more restricted than I'd initially believed it to be – but more importantly it verified a very important detail –

If the woods was removed from the equation completely, as that wall of caution tape seemed to suggest, then it meant that any external party approaching the house would be unable to take that easy way out –

_If the killer couldn't get away from the premises of the shrine in a short amount of time Satoko would have discovered them._

For some reason I felt as though that had to be the case – so that meant that a quick escape was impossible.

So it _had _to be one of us. The chances of it being Mion were slim to none, however –

After all, she's locked in her room downstairs. She could try something daring like scaling the building from the side, but to that extent she'd never make it back in time – Satoko would probably have found her out no matter what.

Time fast forwards slightly before momentarily rewinding – it freezes on a very particular frame that from the interior did not seem to make the slightest bit of difference –

But I peer out the window again –

And cast on the lawn below is a shadow that had not been there before – A shadow that was notably human shaped.

Someone was scaling the building after all. Naturally trying to open the window proved pointless, so there was no way of verifying exactly who was scaling the building –

Suddenly time skips again – I haven't moved a muscle, but the Shadow is suddenly gone. At what point in time is this? No significant period of time has passed considering how the lighting of the sky outside hasn't changed at all.

…I couldn't pinpoint a time frame. The skip had been too sudden. And unfortunately there was no timestamp or anything of the sort.

I sigh, resting my hand against the nearby wall.

"Kaworu-kun, wanna help me out here?" I speak out loud, despite there being no one here but me.

Sure enough on the wall next to where my hand rests 'words' appear – words with white characters shadowed by a strange, dark haze that seems to occupy only a two-dimensional space.

_Less than three minutes have passed, _the words read.

In that case, whoever was scaling the building had finished getting across the roof – or up onto it – in less than three minutes. The next order of business was deciding where exactly they'd been coming from. Coming from off the shrine grounds was already impossible, so they either came from the left or the right side of the building. With this in mind, it almost went without saying that the killer was coming from the right side as Satoko, their target, was on the left side. Now in the event that they had already been on their way back to their room when I'd seen them scaling the side of the building by the window that would mean that they'd already done the job, but of course there was no way for me to actually verify that. It had taken them less than three minutes to get out of my sight – that was all I really knew about the crime scene.

But suddenly more words appear at my side –

_Satoko Houjou is not dead yet. _

Well that certainly clears things up. So the shadow on the side of the building was heading _towards_ Satoko, and in less than three minutes they had at least managed to get out of my line of sight. But from this vantage point I could ascertain nothing else. I knew not if they were on the roof at this particular moment, but…

At this point, how they managed to do it doesn't make the slightest bit of difference. From what I've seen with my own two eyes I have to determine _who_ and if it was _possible_ for them to have done it. That's always been the case.

So –

They came from the left side of the building. Or at least I had to presume so…

…

No, as a matter of fact –

Where they came from wasn't necessarily important.

No one ever said the killer's goal was to scale the building and get to Satoko's room as fast as possible. One would certainly assume so, but…

…There's motivation for just about every one of us to be a killer. But Mion and I are far from killers. But the others… And as for Rena, who wasn't even supposed to be here – there was no way of really knowing for certain how impossible it was for her to be here. She could've been in any one of the rooms.

But…

But that doesn't seem likely, unless she was bunking with the killer the whole time. And if that _was _the case…

More words appear –

_There is no accomplice. The killer is a single entity with a single goal. _

That settles that –

But then, who is the killer? Not Rena, at any rate. That was impossible…

…Of course, that doesn't take into account –

Time skips again before I can complete my thought –

Once again I'm out in the hall by the window – and I see the figure's shadow once more on the side of the building.

So then they _are _heading for this side. There would be no other reason for them to have gone this way twice if they _didn't _have their room on this side. But what did that mean? Did they reside on that side of the building after all?

Was it possible for me to check?

I turn –

Or –

Rather I try to turn, but –

But I _can't_…?!

Why can't I turn around…?

More words appear –

_If you turn around it's all over._

The hairs on the back of my neck stand up –

Was there something so incredibly vital to _everything_… Just behind me?

But of course –

I can't look back. This is a world of closed time. And I – I am removed from this scene as I always have been. But to this extent?

…What could have possibly been behind me in this single instant… That would resolve everything?

… Could the killer have been standing behind me?

Then –

Who was outside, scaling the building…?

…!

Was it possible –

That someone _other _than the killer had left their room that night?!

_Impossible… Only the killer could make use of the exterior to get around._

But…

Then…

_What was behind me? At this very moment?_

Before I know it time skips once again –

Rika gets Satoko's door open and finds her dead. Keiichi and Mion both leave their rooms in response. And then –

The rest is a blur. The Sonozaki estate is burned, Ivan Furude exacts his revenge. But it doesn't stop until Mion is dead too.

That's why she dies next. But Keiichi kills him while in a daze –

How did Keiichi kill him? He'd struck him repeatedly with a meat cleaver –

But where had the cleaver come from?

How'd he come to possess it? Clearly he was as confused as I had been. I was only given part of the story and not the whole –

Before I could even attempt to examine Mion's body further the scene skips once again – Rika and Keiichi are running off into the woods. This was the moment where they go missing forever.

I follow them, but before too long a wall of caution tape suddenly blocks my path and the two disappear in the trees – it would seem that beyond this was territory that not even I could cross into. But why? What exactly happens beyond the woods that's simply so important that I'm being kept from seeing it?

I'd been shown everything I was supposed to have been shown – was I through with this fragment?

Before I could even question that the entirety of the world of closed time seems to rewind – and continues to rewind, far past the initial sequence I'd been shown, and simply keeps going back and back until –

Until I was at the start of the month, but where things began to play out drastically different –

* * *

_Greatest Fear Chapter, in This World of Closed Time  
__Shion Sonozaki, the One True Detective_

Before I know it memories pour into my mind of this new scenario –

In this fragment Mion spends the bulk of her time in her second phase. She's been told by Ivan to kill Keiichi and plays a direct role in his plan to torch the Sonozaki family and falls into serious depression over the matter. I try to console her but ultimately it leads to no avail as she very quickly progresses into her third stage where her mass hallucinations begin to warp the very fabric of her reality. And on top of that our identities were slowly starting to meld once more.

She knows she's trapped. She knows she can't rely on Jack as a way out. So her mind begins to slowly tear her to shreds one fragile piece at a time. But what's even more curious about it all is that she remains largely sane for the bulk of it. She doesn't directly encounter a killer or really express any serious aspect of her insanity outright until _after _everything's said and done.

Mion was able to hold on for so long because Keiichi was in pain – and she was the only one who could console him. That empowering I knew for certain could drive Mion to all sorts of things – her determination would be enough to even overcome the 'easy way out' and fight to the bitter end. Keiichi needed her – that was all she needed to know, all she needed to care about and all she ever really would need to concern herself with to die without regrets.

The source of his pain is a complete mystery to me. I have no context for it, nor do I have any way of knowing if there was a true solution to it. Such things don't matter, however – removing Keiichi from the equation completely is the only way to tear us down. To be able to say 'who' without having to concern myself with the 'why' because it was already apparent.

But soon we come to the string of murders in the Irie clinic – and the moment that she's faced with the truth at the risk of dying.

The door she'd seen – I can see it right now, from where I stand, as she's rounding the corner and heading for my room. That door was clearly there – but it most certainly hadn't been before. Ignoring the obvious parlor trick, does this door actually go _anywhere?_ And more importantly, why had Mion been 'denied' the power to go through it without risking losing everything?

Could _I_ go through this door? Even though all sense would tell me otherwise?

I approach the door – and the moment I do so it swings open –

_Something _clearly emerges from the doorway. Something so fundamentally strange that I couldn't have ascertained what it was with any amount of certainty – but that something had left the door open, and so I take my opportunity and slip through –

I head into the doorway –

In front of me are the first few steps of a massive stairwell that I start to follow without hesitation – I hadn't been shut out of this area like I'd been shut out of the forest just a short while ago, but why was simply beyond me. I decide not to look a gift horse in the mouth and continue my path down the stairwell, hoping to shed some light on this door and less about why it had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and more about where it actually led.

At the bottom lies another door, very similar to the one up top – I go through the door to find myself in a dimly lit hallway –

I'm hit with an influx of memories all at once – this is where Mion and I find Satoshi's body. We find it at the far end of this hallway, and that meant – I turn to my left to find a door just ahead.

This door must lead to the boiler room, where Satoko is killed. So the door in the wall led to this area just beyond that door. That would mean that the killer had a potential exit to the upper level if they had gone this way after leaving the room.

It then occurs to me that time has not skipped yet – that would mean I was down here _before _Satoko's murder took place. Now if something relevant had occurred down here _before _the killing had happened then…

…then what on earth _did _go on? My ability to answer that question was entirely dependent on how much I was allowed to explore – I would always be given enough information to come to a conclusion, but only _just enough _information. Although if I had to give my opinion I really couldn't wrap my head around the initial matter of 'who killed Satoko' that I'd been presented earlier.

In any event I head out into the hall – I suppose my first order of business would be to investigate the hall leading to Satoshi's room. For the bulk of this fragment it was left completely unattended until Mion and I found his body – it was sealed off past that point until the very end. If I could verify the condition of the room before we'd found it there was a decent chance I could finally start pulling some answers from this scenario.

But as I head down the hallway –

I heard a sound – a loud, clanking noise.

I turn –

There's a shadow moving about in the distance – headed towards me.

My eyes widen.

That was impossible… unless…!

Could there have been _someone else _in this world of closed time?

This had never happened before. Something was certainly very wrong here.

I draw Yoshitsune, my prized katana, gifted to me a very long time ago – it was with this katana that I could fell beasts of any sort.

The figure leaps towards me –

I manage to strike it with Yoshitsune –

It was wearing some sort of metal plating. I'd just lightly scratched it with my swing and nothing more. The figure, meanwhile, manages to ram into me and sends me flying backwards with tremendous force –

I look up –

The figure most certainly isn't human –

In fact, it seems to be some sort of machine.

A metallic humanoid figure of a fairly large build with glowing red eyes – but that was about as human as it appeared. It had the face of a tiger with the mane of an African lion. Its arms were about as massive as could be, both entirely composed of steel, with a massive steel ball in one open and equally as massive hand attached to a chain that was wrapped around its leg, which along with its twin were shaped very much like the legs and hooves of a horse. On its back was a massive raven's wing, also built out of steel, that oddly enough had no sibling wing and on top of that seemed to be missing a great deal of its 'feathers'. This beast as a whole reminded me of a Minotaur, only that it simply wasn't… It was something far more composite than that.

I knew just from looking at it that I had no chance in hell of ever really stopping it. I could certainly piss it off, but not much more than that.

It then occurs to me –

Mion had heard a similar sound in the hallway when she'd turned and bolted –

Could _this_ be what had emerged from the doorway that had chased her down?

Then it was just a part of this fragment, wasn't it?

Then why was it chasing me down? How could it move freely in this world of closed time?

It lunges towards me again, this time holding the steel ball with both hands and trying to bring it down on me – I roll out of the way in time but I'm still unable to find any sort of opening – this thing is completely steel from head to toe. It moved like a human being but made mechanical noises and snarled like an animal – this thing was far beyond me. That much I knew for certain.

I'd managed to back away but once again it heads in my direction, this time thrusting one fist downward, denting the floor where I had been only moments before immediately before hurling the steel ball in my direction – I'm forced to back away even further at that point, but the longer this goes on the more and more apparent it is that I'm not going to have a shot at getting close to this thing again without getting my head taken off in the process.

I most certainly couldn't stop that steel ball with my hands – I couldn't block the machine's fist with my hands either, nor could I parry any potential strike without ensuring my sword would shatter into a million pieces – there wasn't any way out of this. I would be stomped out of this fragment by something I couldn't even wrap my brain around before I could thoroughly examine anything.

The beast moves towards me again, having recollected its steel ball by simply yanking on the chain and dragging it over –

"That's enough, Igor." A voice from behind the monster suddenly rings out – it's neither the voice of a man or a woman. It's almost as though it's a mixture of both. The beast stops moving instantaneously.

The source of the voice suddenly steps into view –

A person wearing nothing but a white dress shirt, white dress pants, and a red Keaton mask that I was certain had been in Rika's possession in some fragment I've been to in the past steps into view. They stand there with what seems to be a sports jacket slung over their shoulder and their free hand stuffed into their pant pocket. I couldn't tell anything else about them – their physical build, their hair color or style – they were obscured by the darkness at too large an extent.

I'd most certainly never seen this person before. They were most definitely not a part of this fragment. In fact, they were likely much like me – an entity that did not belong.

"We're coming to the end of the road, you and I." The figure speaks. "And here you are, still as lost as you were when this all began."

"Who are you?" I waste no time getting to the point.

"I am… 'the killer'. The very thing you're willing to spend an eternity tracking down… Well, here I am. I've already presented myself to you."

"And what is that supposed to signify?"

"I want you to stop this. I want you to leave this place and never come back. Simple as that."

"I'm afraid I can't do that."

"And why not?"

"Because I don't want 'the killer'. I want 'the truth'."

"You seek truth…? Why? The truth is something man cannot obtain for himself."

"But I am no man. I'm the furthest thing from man."

"But why? For your loved ones? For yourself?"

"…I seek the truth because without the truth I am nothing."

"Then you will always be nothing… You can't save anyone with the truth. The truth will never set you free. The truth will never amount to anything in the end. You will have no meaning even _if _you uncover the truth."

"That isn't the case. When I discover the truth I will know everything. That way I'll know why saving my loved ones was so impossible. That's all I want to do. That's all I need to concern myself with."

"So your seek the truth to justify your being?"

"I've got a hell of a lot more to justify than just that."

After all – everything was my fault. Everything that ever happened to Mion was a direct result of my ineptitude. Mion wouldn't have suffered had I'd never made her in the first place. Mion never deserved the level of stress that being a part of me put on her. But in the end she never gave in – not until that June where everything came crashing down. No matter how terrible it got she kept moving – until she simply couldn't. Until everything came crashing down around her and the very basis of her being was lost in the chaos.

She lived and died for the family. But the family was always destined to crumble no matter what.

She deserved none of it, but ended up shouldering it all. I only ever lost a potential boyfriend, and nothing more than that.

It's too late for me to make up for things now. That was why all I can do now is unravel everything. Tear down every wall of the box surrounding the truth and let the truth flow freely. If I could do that, then at least my life would have had some meaning.

"Even so, despite how your motivation is founded in pointless optimism regardless of anything you try to do, I can't let you proceed past this point."

"And why might that be?"

"I will not allow you to stumble upon the 'truth' the way you are now."

"The 'way I am now'?"

"Everything that you are, every component of your being from the ground up is founded in ignorance."

"Ouch. That hurts."

The killer chuckles. "Very well then… If you won't take me seriously, then I will simply have to dispose of you…!"

The beast suddenly starts to move again –

"Igor! _Steel Ball Run!_" The killer shouts –

And the beast, evidently named Igor, crushes the chain binding the ball to it with its foot before hurling the ball at me –

The steel ball hurtles towards me at blinding speeds with no chain to slow it down – I turn and run –

There's no way I could possibly outrun it. I was only capable of moving a normal human speeds –

But –

Time suddenly skips –

I find myself on the other side of the boiler room as Mion and Satoko are heading towards the door. This was the last time Satoko is seen alive in this fragment. I find myself in a daze having been under the effect of such an adrenaline rush merely seconds ago – I almost miss the moment Satoko enters the boiler room.

My eyes catch something –

As she walks through the doorway –

Something became hazy. I wasn't entirely sure _what _exactly had been hazy, but something about the space around Satoko the moment she'd gone through that door seemed… Off to me.

After the moment the door shuts time begins to skip again –

This time nothing seems to change. Mion is still standing in front of the room and Satoko has yet to emerge, simply because she would _never _emerge from the boiler room. She was likely already dead at this point –

The result is a closed room murder that seems completely impossible for anyone that couldn't phase through walls to pull off. But there was something extremely odd about this whole setup –

All I know about this point in time is that 'time passes.' That's it. Any real amount of time could have passed – Mion is the first person to discover the body and her perspective is far from reliable. Especially considering how she's well into her third phase at this point. And as was the case before Mion enters the room and finds Satoko. The others all eventually gravitate to the room and things play out the way they're supposed to.

"But… How much time had passed?"

Unlike in the previous scenario I'm offered no hints here – was the amount of time that had passed not important?

Time once again skips forward – I'm in the hallway as Mion escapes from her room – it is very shortly after this moment that she discovers Keiichi's body in his room and also witnesses _something _in Rika's room that evidently contributes to nothing –

The killer must have killed everyone when Mion believed herself to be locked in her room. What scenario Mion witnessed in Rika's room must not be relevant, as more floating caution tape blocks my path.

The truth is sitting around here somewhere. But no matter how hard I look…

Mion enters Keiichi's room – she finds his body there but refuses to examine it.

Suddenly words appear in the air just to the left of her head.

_A 'demon' is responsible for this murder, as the killer is in the room._

I narrow my eyes in confusion –

The killer was in the room?

But the only things that were inside were the body and Mion, and Mion wasn't the killer –

There had to be something more to this…

…

…!

I think it's possible, but only if –

"What is a 'demon'?"

But I receive no response.

Was this _another _dead end?

I'm slowly brought through time again to another point – the moment when Mion finds herself capable of reentering Satoshi's chamber. The blast doors that had closed us out prior to that had mysteriously disappeared and she was allowed to enter the chamber –

Upon which she witnesses the supposed 'demon' that was in the room with Keiichi's body. But –

I had long since abandoned the possibility that a 'demon' was the killer. For the longest time I tried to force myself to believe something so clearly wrong, but after having cycled through enough worlds I knew that such a solution was just a way out –

The killer was human. The killer had to be human.

This was all fake. Or a hallucination. This scene does not matter. None of this ultimately matters in the end…

I refuse to accept something so inherently false as the 'truth'. I will find the person who did this – no 'demon' would stop me.

I find time beginning to rewind again – as it had done before it sends me extremely far back, this time even further back than before as another scenario unfolds.

* * *

_Glorious Days Chapter, in This World of Closed Time  
__Shion Sonozaki, The One True Detective_

The next scenario is highly focused on Satoko – her history is given, but in all honesty I don't need a lick of that history because I already know it all by heart.

I know of her conflict with Jack. I know of her sin against Satoshi. I also know how despite how many times she saw us both individually she never really figured out that Mion and I were inhabiting the same body – even Keiichi had managed to reason that out at least once.

Everything elaborates more on Ivan in all honesty than it does on Satoko. His hate for my grandmother rivals my own and it's extremely apparent why he wanted to watch our family die. Once again our family collapses while we, the usual band of survivors, end up hiding away underground.

This whole scenario tells me a whole lot of nothing. There's so little I can pull from this it's a wonder I was even sent here in the first place.

We all decide to wait the rioting in the village out, with the top priority being to protect Mion from harm. Of course Mion would have us believe that shielding her from harm was our undoing, but –

But it was never like that. It was never like that, not even once.

The killer is still capable of all of the murders she's responsible for. The killer can do everything that she's done and make it seem just as legitimate. Jack the Ripper is not the culprit. I'm certain of that. Mion is innocent of all the blood shed in Hinamizawa. I know she's lying… I know she's pretending to be the one…

But…

Why?

Why go to such extremes to…

Before I can mull over that point any further time skips again – this time it places me in the middle of the hallway after Satoko has just come out of my room. From this point she heads off to confront Mion in the cave, but in the meantime I have more dead bodies to examine.

This crime scene tells me nothing – there's a million ways for the culprit to successfully dispose of everyone in all their rooms with relative ease. The vents running through the ceiling give so much leeway for murder, and although Rika's disappearance seemingly has no explanation I couldn't exactly properly explain the existence of a killer that wasn't Mion.

This place has no answers. Then why am I even here…?

I stop dead in my tracks just outside my room –

My body –

_I _was dead in this room right next to me and my body was there to prove it –

_My_ body…?

But that simply made no sense –

Mion is still clearly alive –

Unless –

Satoko was the only person who witnessed my body at all –

Satoko is not the detective. Satoko can certainly be as unreliable as Mion.

Then –

Of course –

It make sense. Only barely, but it makes sense –

There was nothing that really said that my body was in the room. Only that I was dead. There were a thousand ways of being dead. I could be considered dead if I never retain control of the body ever again –

And…

And that meant…

I move back into Keiichi's room again –

I'm not ready for the truth, I've been told by none other than the killer themselves. But –

But maybe now I was beginning to see things –

I can't trust my eyes. And all this time I've been using nothing _but _my eyes. But my eyes had told me merely moments ago that I was dead in my room.

I'm called back to the 'what is a demon' moment in my line of thought –

If I stopped considering things based solely on what I saw, then maybe – maybe the answer to that scenario would finally make sense.

In this scenario Keiichi clearly has no head. That much I can verify with far more than just my eyesight.

But…

The moment I touch his body –

His corpse –

Is far too cold for someone who died mere moments ago –

And then –

In that moment –

It all becomes clear –

Time skips again, but this time I have to intervene.

No – the answer doesn't lie past here. The answer isn't in the cave with Satoko and Mion. The answer –

The answer is in all the places I never checked.

"Kaworu-kun… You know where to take me."

I reappear at the moment Mion enters Keiichi's room and refuses to examine the body. In this moment, as Kaworu pointed out, a 'demon' is doubtlessly the killer.

But no –

That wasn't the case –

The killer –

The killer is human.

The killer is one of us…

Or…

Rather…

One of _us_…

There are only two human components in this room, Mion and the body.

I don't know Rika's status, nor Rena's, but Mion witnessed Rika kill Rena, even if it wasn't real.

Mion's perspective may be flawed, but I knew for certain that she and the body were the only two human components in the room –

Mion and the body are the only two human components in the room.

There are only two components in the room that can be considered human.

How many components are there in the room?

How many 'non-human' components are there in this room?

There could have been dozens.

But –

But none of that mattered, because –

The culprit was in the room.

The culprit I know is human.

But –

For the culprit to be human –

The culprit must be the body or Mion –

'Mion'

'the body'

…

…

….

…!

And in that moment –

Before I know it I've reappeared in the Furude house during the initial incident I was shown –

I can finally see it – the truth has never been closer!

I'm almost there –

My eyes deceive me –

But in this moment –

I can see the truth with my own eyes as I break down the door to _their _room –

And inside –

Inside, where there should have been someone –

There was in fact no one –

At this moment Satoko is being killed –

All doors were locked. Not all of the windows were locked –

But all the doors were locked. All the doors were rigged with alarms. No door could've been opened without sounding the alarm –

No door could be _opened_… But I'd just broken this door down –

But…

Even then it was far simpler than that –

Because in this room –

And time skips one final time –

And I hear Rika's scream.

I hear her scream, echoing through the silent hall –

And –

I turn around –

I'm at the junkyard, where Rena takes to dumping things she'd deemed cute. There've been nasty rumors of a strange figure dumping things here very late at night, but it wasn't all that odd for Rena to be out and about adding things to her collection late in the evening.

Someone had been seen dumping two massive bags at this very spot…

I get to work immediately. I tear away the assorted garbage in my way and eventually I find them – the two large and heavy looking bags that the strange figure had tossed in here –

And I open them – I open the bags and inside…

From behind me I hear a voice.

"…And so here we are. At the end of the road."

I turn on the spot – the killer is there, standing only a few feet behind me.

"In this world of closed time, I did not think it possible for you to abandon rational thought… It would seem I was wrong after all."

I don't register their words at all – the Keaton mask upon their face… Slowly crumbles away, turning to dust at their feet.

"This is it… This is the truth you desire." They speak softly.

"Indeed, this is the truth I desire…"

I understand now, Keiichi – I understand why things went this way. I understand, Mion – I understand why you could never be happy. I understand, Rika – I understand why your struggle went unrewarded.

And –

I had reached it.

The truth –

This is as far as I can go, Rika. The rest is up to you.

And so I was left there, doomed to the whims of the very truth I had been chasing for so very long…

* * *

_10 Days Remain (June 20__th__, 1983)_

The house is dark. It is roughly six in the morning and not a single light seems to be on. The house is clearly occupied and in most instances someone in the family would already be up and about. The father would likely be painting and the mother would likely either be preparing breakfast for her son or cleaning around the house.

But no such activity happens on this morning. There is a break in the norm. A break that only fuels the fire that is this grand farce.

The house is dark. In the living room furniture is tossed and overturned, scattered all across the room. The kitchen is at first seemingly unchanged, but the streaks of blood on the floor become all the more visible as the sun rises. The entire house is in a similar state of disarray. Plates shattered, glasses smashed and scattered across the floor – it would take hours, if not an entire day, to fix up the damage that was done.

But upstairs – there were two bodies, sprawled out in the hallway. The faces of both were etched with the same blood chilling look of pure terror. A terror that came with their particularly brutal murder. It was a visage all common – confusion, anger, sadness. The emotions that compose the most base of human conditions – fear.

The bodies of the two elders, the parents, both completely unrecognizable, even to their own child. Both mauled in such ways that even the devil himself would cringe in disgust had he even thought about them. In the end neither one of them could have possibly thought of a more gruesome and pitiful way to die.

The downstairs phone rings. The upstairs phone is broken beyond repair, splashed with blood like everything else seemed to be. It rings and rings, and about a moment or two before the answering machine would pick up –

"…Hello?"

He waits for a response.

"…Ah, Rena-chan? How are you? Hm? Oh, yeah. Sure. You can come over whenever you want…"

He pauses for a moment.

"…I could use the company. And the food. Oh, right I didn't tell you, did I? My parents went out on a business trip. Something about relatives or whatever – they didn't give me the details. They won't be back for a few days. Probably not even for the rest of the month."

He waits for the response.

"Oh, eight o'clock sounds fine. I'll…Clean things up. Alright. Seeya."

He hangs up the phone.

He stands there motionlessly, the bloodied bat still welded to his other hand, the sheer intensity of his animalistic frenzy still taking its toll on his body. He was trembling uncontrollably, his lips quivering so much he was fortunate to have even been able to answer the phone. Covered from head to toe in blood, he had become something he'd never imagined he was capable of being – a deranged lunatic, capable of all evil, no matter how vile, no matter how stomach churning, and no matter how outright appalling that evil could be.

And he felt no remorse. In fact, it almost felt good. But he wasn't that quite far off the deep end.

But regardless, he knew something with certainty.

He would without a doubt strike again. He could only hope by then they all would have realized why. But he knew it was all to no avail.

The genocide before him has no purpose – other than to satiate his undying anger.

And he would continue to satiate it – until Hinamizawa itself could breath no more.

_But he's like an angel that came down to bless us –_

_But that's wrong. That's not the truth. Can't you see anything with your own two eyes? _

_But we were willing to help you through anything that came your way._

_But you never knew – not one of you knew the truth. Not one of you understood._

_But we all loved you._

_But you never did. And you never will. _

Keiichi Maebara is a heartless killer. He is the cold blooded psychopath responsible for this death and all deaths that follow. He knows of no other means to his ends but relentless murder. He is death incarnate, and for all eternity the world shall know the desperation of his cry.

This is the truth – the truth that is more precious than every jewel in the world put together. The truth that nations would fall for the sake of asserting for themselves.

This is the truth that no man can ever hope to grasp with their own two hands.

There was no hope, there was no future.

They had all wronged him in ways that were beyond redemption.

And for that he would kill them all, every last one of them.

The cicadas cower in fear of the inner beast of mankind being set free.

The world will cower in fear as the darkness in his heart blots out the sun.

Eternal darkness awaits. And none will be spared.

Indeed, the world has ended.

The world has ended but the struggle goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on –

This is the true cycle of death and suffering.

This is the truth.

The pure, unadulterated truth.

And in the end it doesn't matter –

For now it is far too late –

Twenty thousand years too late –


End file.
